B&Q’s parent company has a home improvement job on its hands after a big profit warning on the back of bad weather and troubles in Poland.
Kingfisher— which owns B&Q, Screwfix and Castorama and Brico Depot in France — said it would now make profits of £590million.
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The revised figure is £44million less than it expected after the business returned a record profit last year of £1billion.
Shares in Kingfisher slumped by more than 10 per cent yesterday as investors reacted to signs its lockdown sales boom was petering out.
The share price drop will mean bumper profits for the hedge funds who have short positions worth 4.6 per cent of Kingfisher — £180million — that its value will fall.
The business said that sales of its outdoor furniture, barbecues and garden products slumped by 27 per cent overall during a washout summer in the UK — usually the busiest time for the business.
In Poland, where Kingfisher has 99 stores, it has been hit by a big downturn in consumer confidence. Inflation there has hit 15 per cent and interest rates 6.75 per cent.
However, Kingfisher stressed its UK consumers were still defying the gloom, driving up sales of new kitchens and bathrooms.
Typically, big purchases are put off at times of uncertainty, but boss Thierry Garnier said more people were spending on renovating as the mortgage market had made it too expensive to move.
In more brighter news, the DIY retailer is rolling out its Screwfix speedy delivery service across the UK and taking the brand international.
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It also keeps growing online sales through its relatively new marketplace, DIY.com.
BP FEMALE FIRST
BP has named its first female finance chief after reshuffling its board in the wake of boss Bernard Looney’s departure over workplace love affairs.
Kate Thomson, who has been at the oil giant for 19 years, will take on the role on an interim basis. She fills the role of Murray Auchincloss, who has been shifted across to fill Mr Looney’s place.
He quit last week after admitting he had misled the board about the nature of personal relationships with colleagues.
BP is seeking a permanent successor.
‘GLOOMSDAY’ SLUMP
KINGFISHER were joined by a trio of other company profit warnings on “gloomy Tuesday”.
Shares in struggling fashion retailer Quiz plunged by a third after the business said it would now make losses of £1.5million after its sales slumped by 12 per cent.
SafeStyle— the door and windows company — had 40 per cent of its value wiped after saying recent sales were down.
Northcoders also saw shares fall by nearly 40 per cent as clients cut back on the software training company during hiring freezes.
Meanwhile, Naked Wines saw a 7 per cent drop after yesterday saying sales would fall by 12 per cent as consumers cut down on online orders.
AJ Bell’s Russ Mould said: “Cracks are appearing in the corporate world.”
OCADO CUTS LIFT
A PRICE-cutting strategy at OCADO has resulted in a 7.2 per cent rise in sales.
The online retailer took £570million in the last three months. It said it now had 961,000 customers and was taking 381,000 orders a week.
It cut prices on 300 items this month after realising its well-heeled shoppers were feeling the pinch.
Ocado is half-owned by Marks & Spencer.
Hannah Gibson, who runs Ocado Retail, said it would now start selling and promoting more M&S groceries online.
DELAY-HIT AVANTI TO CARRY ON
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AVANTI will continue running the West Coast trainline despite causing chaos with the highest number of train cancellations last year.
It has been handed a new contract by the Department for Transport to operate services between London, Manchester and Glasgow — for the next nine years.
Last year, Avanti was threatened with having its contract axed after one in four trains were cancelled due to driver shortages.
The DfT justified renewing the contract because of “dramatically reduced cancellations”.
Transport Secretary Mark Harper added: “Now Avanti are back on track, providing long-term certainty for both the operator and passengers will best ensure that improvements continue.”
But Mike Amesbury, Labour MP for Weaver Vale, said the contract “has been rewarded on the basis that it’s a little less crap than it used to be”.
TUI’S TOP SUMMER
HOLIDAY firm TUI toasted a boom in bookings
— saying that the surge will “substantially” boost profits.
The upbeat reaction came despite Tui acknowledging wildfires in Greece and a European heatwave cost them £21million for chartering 12 repatriation flights to Rhodes, and compensation payouts.
But 13.7million bookings were made over the summer and winter bookings are up 15 per cent already from last year.
