B&Q sales hurt by poor weather

B&Q owner Kingfisher today said like-for-like sales in the UK slumped by nearly 8% after a “very tough” first quarter.

Same store sales were down 7.9% during the 13 weeks to May 3, with total UK sales dipping 3% to £1.13bn (€1.43bn).

Retail profits for the group’s UK business – which has been hit by the housing market slowdown – were also down 8.5% to £33m (€41.8m) during the period.

Recently-appointed chief executive Ian Cheshire, who is trying to halt three years of successive profit falls for Kingfisher, said: “As anticipated, trading remained very tough, especially in the UK, and the poor weather was unhelpful for sales of outdoor products.”

He also said this financial year’s budgets had been reworked with lower sales growth targets.