28th May 2015 06:30
LONDON (Alliance News) - Kingfisher PLC Thursday reported a drop in total revenue in the first quarter of its financial year as it was hit by adverse currency movements, but said it is making good progress with its turnaround plans.
The retailer reported total sales of GBP2.59 billion for the 13 weeks to May 2, which is a 4.6% decline on the same period the year before, but would have been an increase of 2.7% had exchange rates remained constant. Like-for-like sales were up 0.8% on a constant currency basis.
Kingfisher said that retail profit in the period was GBP150 million, down 4.8% after being hit by GBP10 million in adverse foreign exchange movements on the translation of non-sterling profits and GBP7 million in charges for new country development activity. Retail profit was up 1.4% at constant currencies.
Total sales were up 2.9% in the UK & Ireland but down 11.5% in France. In Other International, including Poland, Russia and Spain, total sales were down 8.4%. On a like-for-like basis at constant currencies, sales in the UK & Ireland were up 1.6% in the period, while sales in France were still down 1.2% on that basis and Other International sales rose 3.8%.
"We have made a solid start to the year against strong comparatives. In the UK, B&Q continued to grow sales volumes and Screwfix delivered an excellent performance, opening its 400th store in May. In France, our businesses performed broadly in line with the market," Chief Executive Veronique Laury said in a statement.
"We are also making good early progress with our 'ONE' Kingfisher plan to unlock our potential by creating a single, unified company where customer needs come first. Our first 'sharp' decisions are being worked on at pace," she added.
Kingfisher said it has made agreements to dispose of a quarter of the B&Q stores earmarked for closure as part of its plans to turn the business around.
It said it has returned GBP88 million as part of the GBP200 million share buy back planned for the current financial year.
By Karolina Kaminska; [email protected] @KarolinaAllNews
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