Kingfisher hopes for World Cup sales boost after Q1 profit report

Kingfisher (LON:KGF), the parent group of B&Q, has today announced its Q1 profits report headlined by a group retail profit increase of 12 per cent despite total sales remaining flat. The group ‘s Chief Executive said he hoped sales would improve over coming months as the summer weather approaches and England begin its World Cup campaign.

Rob Hull
shareprices.com - Thursday, June 03, 2010

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B&Q Q1 profits rose 12 per cent

B&Q has added a new range of World Cup-orientated merchandise, from St George’s flag gazebos to England duvet covers, to encourage summer spending. The group is hoping to make up for a lack of trade during the winter period with poor weather keeping punters away from the outdoor-specialist store.

Ian Cheshire, Kingfisher’s CEO, said: “We had a particularly cold and prolonged winter, and spring basically was delayed by about six weeks, so across most of our markets it has impacted outdoor building projects at the start of the quarter, and the gardening and outdoor leisure toward the end of that quarter”.

Cheshire also added: “I’m also sure that some of the effects of the World Cup will prompt people to buy the off barbeque later on if England go far enough”.

In the 13 weeks ended 1 May, group sales were flat at £2.6bn – down 1.8 per cent in like-for-like sales. However profit increased by 12 per cent to £146m.

The traditionally poor British weather hampered sales in the UK and Ireland, which makes up just under half of the total turnover for the group. Like-for-like sales fell 2.8 per cent to £1.2bn but retail profit grew 13 per cent.

Castorama, Kingfisher’s French business, was the group’s best performer with a like-for-like sales growth of two per cent to £585m after the consumer DIY chain underwent a store modernisation process and employed a new marketing campaign.

The share price improved 1.8 per cent when the market opening this morning and has continued to hit a high price for the day of 230.46p – a gain of three per cent.

Fellow home improvement blue-chip Home Retail Group (LON:HOME), which is the parent group of Homebase, has also recorded a share price increase of up to 2.3 per cent today on a buoyant FTSE 100 index.

 

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