Kingfisher’s third quarter performance showed how tough trading has become in the DIY sector. UK sales at B&Q fell by 2.9 per cent at constant currency and like-for-like sales at Kingfisher’s French businesses fell by 3.4 per cent. Only Screwfix with a 4.1 per cent increase in its like-for-likes offered reason for cheer.
Veronique Laury, CEO, Kingfisher said: “Transformation on this scale is tough, and we are operating in a difficult retail environment. We face challenges and we are addressing them. Our main challenge is Castorama France and we shared our action plan to fix it at the half year. We have accelerated our move to an everyday low-price strategy and have launched a new marketing campaign to make it visible to our customers, however there is no quick fix.”
Laury also announced that Kingfisher will exit Russia, Spain and Portugal to enable focus on its main markets.
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