Huge DIY brand to open 40 new stores across the UK starting in days – first locations revealed

A HUGE DIY brand is set to open 40 new stores across the UK over the next financial year.

Screwfix is set to open dozens of new stores nationwide as its owner, Kingfisher, seeks to expand the DIY brand’s national presence.

Screwfix is set to open dozens of new stores in 2024/25Credit: Reuters

Kingfisher will open up to 40 new Screwfix stores in the year, and The Sun can reveal the first of five new shops swinging their doors open to shoppers.

Screwfix opened two new stores this month and a further three new shops will open in April.

A new store on Lordship Lane, East Dulwich, opened to customers on Monday, March 4.

On Saturday, March 23, Screwfix opened another store in Staverton, Gloucester.

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Kingfisher, which also owns B&Q, has announced that its compact store format – B&Q Local – will also expand into more UK high streets in the coming months.

B&Q opened nine of these new stores in the UK last year and has plans to open more.

Cheap hack ‘transforms’ your car with more power and better mileage and all you need is a £5 item from Screwfix

Kingfisher “believes there are around 50 catchments or geographic ‘white spaces’ in the UK where B&Q is currently under-represented”.

B&Q operates out of over 300 UK stores but has vacated selected retail park sites in favour of smaller compact units on high streets.

Last year B&Q closed several shops within Asda supermarkets.

The store partnered with Asda in 2020 to launch these “mini-shops” inside supermarkets.

But all eight of these sites closed on March 11, 2023.

It comes on the same day that Kingfisher revealed annual profits slumped by more than a quarter.

The group reported a 25.1% drop in underlying pre-tax profits to £568million for the year to January 31.

Kingfisher, which also owns brands including Castorama and Brico Depot in France, said like-for-like sales tumbled by 5.9% in France and 7.7% elsewhere across Europe.

However, it said the UK and Ireland saw a more resilient performance, with sales up 0.8%, leaving overall group-wide sales down 3.1%.

The group has pared back sales declines so far in its new financial year, to a fall of 2.3%.

But it warned that profits are expected to drop again, to between £490million and £550million in 2024-25, below the £560million pencilled in by analysts.

It comes after the firm had already warned over profits twice last autumn for the year just gone.

A pullback in consumer spending on DIY and a housing market downturn has added to its woes across Europe.

Kingfisher announced a turnaround plan for its beleaguered French arm, signalling job cuts as part of an overhaul that will also include a store restructuring and shop revamp plan to help boost its flagging performance in the region.

Thierry Garnier, chief executive of Kingfisher, said the group was trimming its 58,781-strong workforce, particularly as part of the French overhaul, but declined to say how many jobs would be impacted.

It employs 17,698 in France while it has 25,106 staff in the UK and Ireland.

He said the group ramped up hiring during Covid and the DIY boom, but has since been rowing back as sales have waned.

“We massively recruited in 2020 and 2021 – when times are tough, that’s your job to flex your headcount to the demand,” he said.

The firm said many of the cuts would be accounted for by staff turnover, with its so-called churn standing at about 30%, though it said this was below others in the retail sector.

It has already cut costs across the group by around £350million in recent years, with about another £120million in savings set to be made over the year ahead.

The group hopes this will offset higher wages and spending on IT, including AI to improve product stocking.

Mr Garnier said: “Despite all the macroeconomic and consumer challenges in our markets over the past year, we have stayed focused on our customers and our long-term strategy.”