B&Q owner sees shares fall by 6%

Shares in Kingfisher, Europe’s biggest home improvements retailer, fell 6% yesterday as pressure on profit margins and a smaller-than-expected sales boost from warmer weather pushed first- quarter earnings below forecasts.

The owner of B&Q in Britain and Ireland and Castorama and Brico Depot in France, said that underlying operating profit for the 13 weeks to May 3 grew 20% to £142m (€174m). Results a year ago were depressed by bad weather across much of Europe.

“The group like-for-like sales increase was only 6%, rather than the hoped for 7% to 8%, with B&Q in the UK just under 10% like-for-like, which ought to have been better, given very weak comparatives and the better weather/ late Easter impact,” retail analyst Nick Bubb said.