French growth gives Kingfisher major boost

British DIY retailer Kingfisher has had a great quarter. The enormous growth in France is particularly noteworthy.

DIY boom continues

Sales in the first quarter, which ended on 30 April, reached 3.44 billion pounds (around 4 billion euros), a 60 per cent increase year-on-year. The fact that revenues for the parent company of B&Q, Castorama and Screwfix, among others, are still more than a fifth higher than in 2019 – i.e. before the crisis – indicates the strong performance of the DIY retailer in recent months.

In both the UK and France, the company grew faster than the market, writes Retail Gazette. Turnover in the UK and Ireland rose by 66.8 per cent year-on-year to 1.82 billion pounds (2.1 billion euros). The result in France was even better: sales almost doubled (+97.4 per cent) to 1.17 billion pounds (1.4 billion euros). Last year, its French subsidiaries Castorama and Brico Dépôt returned to growth for the first time in five years.
 

Outlook revised

The Group’s online sales rose by 63 per cent year-on-year: Kingfisher now derives more than a fifth of its revenue from e-commerce. Compared to 2019, the increase is even a colossal 258 per cent.

“With the strong start to the year, we now anticipate first half sales and adjusted pre-tax profit to be ahead of our previous expectations,” said CEO Thierry Garnier.