B&Q parent company sees first-half profit fall by 30%

The home improvement retailer which also owns Castorama and Brico Depot in France and other markets, said on Tuesday it made an adjusted pretax profit of €539m in the six months to July 31

Kingfisher said it had made an encouraging start to trading in its third quarter, with like-for-like sales to September 17 down 0.7% on the year but up 15.2% on a three-year basis.

Kingfisher, the parent company of B&Q and Screwfix has reported a 29.5% fall in first-half underlying profit but said it was seeing resilience in outdoor and 'big-ticket' category sales trends despite the cost of living crisis.

The home improvement retailer which also owns Castorama and Brico Depot in France and other markets, said on Tuesday it made an adjusted pretax profit of £472m (€539m) in the six months to July 31, a touch ahead of analysts' average forecast and versus £669m (€764m) in the same period last year when its performance was boosted by the pandemic.