French revolution in London

The new French chief executive of Kingfisher, Véronique Laury, aims to restructure the organisation of the home improvement group. Under the slogan “One Kingfisher” the intention is to standardise structures across countries and distribution channels. The initial impact has been on the top management echelons: in addition to the positions of CEO and CFO, in future there will be a chief offer & supply chain officer, a chief digital & IT officer, a chief people officer and three operations directors for the big box, medium box and omnichannel distribution formats.
These positions have already been filled for the most part. Arja Taaveniku, who worked for Ikea for 20 years and was latterly CEO of the Ikano Group, is to be chief offer & supply chain officer. The operations director for the big box format will be Guy Colleau, currently CEO of group sourcing & offer and formerly Castorama boss in France. Responsibility for the medium box format will be assumed in future by Alain Souillard, currently CEO of Brico Dépôt International. Steve Willet, at present CEO of group productivity & development, will become omnichannel operations director and will also assume the position of chief digital & IT officer.
The new management has announced other measures that are to be taken swiftly: the garden and bathroom/plumbing categories are to be harmonised across Europe, the number of products group-wide is to be reduced from 393 000, and IT processes and the infrastructure are to be standardised. In this regard B&Q Ireland is to take on a pilot project with SAP.
Work is also to be undertaken, as underlined by the three new directorships, on the sales formats. 15 per cent of the retail area of the B&Q distribution channel in Great Britain and Ireland is to be shed, meaning specifically that around 60 stores are to be closed and six reduced in size. Some loss-making outlets in mainland Europe are to be closed, but on the whole the big box format is to be revitalised.