Kingfisher: consistent gains

Home Improvement
Sales £ mio
% total change
% like-for-like change
Retail profit £ mio
% total change
2003
2002
2003
2002
UK
3,748.1
3,214.6
16.6
5.1
360.1
300.5
19.8
France
2,045.2
1,833.5
11.5
2.4
127.0
119.9
5.9
International
963.9
785.8
22.7
5.3
47.0
10.3
356.3
Total
6,757.2
5,833.9
15.8
4.3
534.1
430.7
24.0
UK
The UK repair, maintenance and improvement market showed growth of 4 per cent for the full year. During the year, B&Q’s market share grew from 12.3 per cent to 13.5 per cent, Kingfisher says.
B&Q opened 14 new Warehouses and four new Supercentres. Total selling space grew by 138,000 square metres, an increase of 7.5 per cent. Overall, B&Q sales increased by 15.9 per cent, 3.8 per cent on a like-for-like basis, with growth across all categories. Sales of ‘it’ kitchens, Performance Power tools, new laminate flooring and kitchen appliances were particularly strong.
Screwfix Direct, the specialist catalogue and internet home improvement retailer, grew sales by 31 per cent with the internet now representing 18 per cent of total sales. B&Q Direct, which includes the transactional website diy.com and sells 14,000 products online, grew sales threefold during the year.
France
The French home improvement market grew by 4.6 per cent in 2002/03.  Together, Castorama and Brico Dépôt grew Kingfisher’s market share and achieved total sales growth of 11.5 per cent. On a like-for-like basis, sales increased 2.4 per cent.
Castorama reported total sales growth of 2.7 per cent, up 1.4 per cent on a like-for-like basis. Sales growth in paint, kitchens, flooring, lighting, bathrooms and in the garden and plants category was particularly strong during the year. Sales were also supported by increased advertising spend. During the year, two new Castorama stores were opened, four were relocated and two were transferred to Brico Dépôt. Total selling space grew by 3.9 per cent to more than 977,000 square metres.
Brico Dépôt had another strong year with total sales up 34.8 per cent in local currency and like-for-like sales ahead 7.9 per cent. During the year, 13 new stores were opened, bringing the total to 56.  A further nine are planned to open in the coming year.--nextpage--
International
Almost all businesses grew operating profit with particularly strong results from Castorama Poland, Réno-Dépôt in Canada and Castorama Italy.
Despite continuing high unemployment and poor consumer confidence, Castorama Poland grew total sales by 37.9 per cent, like-for-like sales by 11.1 per cent and profit by more than 40 per cent over the previous year. Four new warehouse stores were opened during the year, bringing the total to 16.
Castorama Italy generated total sales growth of 19.2 per cent, up 8.0 per cent on a like-for-like basis. Profit was ahead by more than 40 per cent. Two new warehouse stores were opened during the year, bringing the total to 14.
B&Q Taiwan, which opened two new stores during the year, grew total sales by 26.8 per cent in local currency, up 9.1 per cent on a like-for-like basis, but reported flat profit as a result of a difficult consumer climate.
B&Q China continued its expansion programme with a further three store openings during the year, almost doubling the existing selling space. Overall sales grew by 142.2 per cent during the period, with like-for-like sales ahead by 18.9 per cent. Before pre-opening costs, the business is now profitable.
In Canada, Réno-Dépôt achieved like-for-like sales growth of 1.7 per cent.
Stores
stores nos.
Selling space (000s m²)
Employees
UK
320
1,975.5
25,009
France
161
1,246.3
16,154
International
126
912.1
13,586
Total
607
4,133.9
54,749
1 February 2003