Kingfisher to close 60 B&Q stores in Britain (updated)

Mr Bricolage SA

31/03/2015 07:49

(Adds detail) 
    LONDON, March 31 (Reuters) - Kingfisher  KGF.L , Europe's 
biggest home improvement retailer,  said on Tuesday it planned 
to close about 60 underperforming B&Q stores in Britain as the 
group posted a 7.5 percent fall in annual profit. 
    The store closures form part of new Chief Executive 
Veronique Laury's plan to shake-up the group. She succeeded Ian 
Cheshire in December. 
    B&Q currently trades from 360 stores and the planned 
closures will represent about 15 percent of the chain's space. 
    Kingfisher said Kevin O'Byrne CEO for B&Q UK and Ireland 
would leave the business on May 15. 
    The group, which also trades as Screwfix in Britain and 
Castorama and Brico Depot in France, also plans to close a few 
loss-making stores in Europe, develop unified garden and 
bathroom businesses and start a revitalisation programme for its 
big stores across Europe. 
    Kingfisher made a pretax profit of 675 million pounds ($998 
million) in the year to Jan. 31. 
    That was in line with analysts' average forecast of 674 
million pounds but down from 744 million a year earlier. 
    The fall in profit reflected a slower market in France since 
the summer of 2014, 34 million pounds of adverse foreign 
exchange movements on the translation of non-sterling profits 
and 22 million pounds in charges for new country development 
activity. 
    Sales rose 2.9 percent on a constant currency basis to 10.97 
billion pounds. 
    Kingfisher ended the year with net cash of 329 million 
pounds and is paying a dividend of 10 pence a share, up 1 
percent. It also plans to return a further 200 million pounds  
to investors during the 2015-16 year.  
    Shares in Kingfisher, the world's No. 3 DIY player behind 
U.S. groups Lowe's  LOW.N  and Home Depot  HD.N , have fallen 12 
percent over the last year. They closed at 364.8 pence on 
Monday, valuing the business at 8.54 billion pounds. 
    On Monday, Kingfisher's proposed 275 million euro purchase 
of small French rival Mr Bricolage  MBRI.PA  collapsed. 
 ID:nL6N0WS4P2  
    ($1 = 0.6766 pounds) 
 
 (Reporting by James Davey; editing by David Holmes and Jason 
Neely) 
 ((james.davey@thomsonreuters.com; +44 20 7542 7674; Reuters 
Messaging: james.davey.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)) 
 
Keywords: KINGFISHER RESULTS/