Kingfisher to close Trade Depot

 Kigfisher, parent company of B&Q, has announced that it is to close the nine stores of its loss-making, merchant-style Trade Depot format in the weakening UK market. Launched in November 2005, Trade Depot was an attempt to capture sales at the heaviest end of the RMI (Repair Maintenance & Improvement) market for Kingfisher. At the time of launch Kingfisher believed the € 60 bn trade market offered significant opportunities for the company. The 2 800 m² stores were targeted at independent and semi-professional tradesmen, and they featured drive-through areas for goods collection. As of November 2008 the format consists of nine stores in the south of England, the Midlands and South Wales. Announcing the closure, Kingfisher describes the concept as “unproven” and reveals that the division made a retail loss of € 6 mio in 2007/8. The company says it will now concentrate its resources on Screwfix and B&Q. Screwfix has proved to be the star of the downturn so far, possibly because it derives a large part of its sales from the internet and mail order. Nonetheless this division has increased its trade counters to 134 and has grown total sales to € 150 mio. B&Q itself saw sales decline by 7.8 per cent to € 1.06 bn during the third quarter of the year. The poor performance is blamed on the weak economic climate, in addition to inclement weather conditions during the summer. Nonetheless, a store revamp programme is still underway at B&Q, and the company currently trades from 118 large stores (of which 52 are in the latest format) and 205 smaller stores (of which 165 are in the latest format).