International businesses outshine others

Kingfisher, the UK home improvement retailer, has announced high sales growth for the first six months of the current financial year (to 31 July 2004). Overall retail sales increased by 9.6 per cent to £ 3.9 bn (€ 5.7 bn). The increase amounted to 11.6 per cent in constant currencies, and comes to 6.1 per cent in like-for-like terms.
In the UK itself the group’s B&Q chain recorded growth of 5.9 per cent, or 2.5 per cent like-for-like, for a total of £ 2.1729 bn (€ 3.19461 bn).
The international businesses turned in rates of growth that are to some extent considerably higher. The main French retail line, Castorama, made the most of the pricing policy it had adopted to achieve sales of £ 827.1 mio (€ 1.216 bn), which translates into an increase of 7.8 per cent (in constant currencies) and 5.3 per cent like-for-like. By contrast, Kingfisher’s second retail chain in France shone with double-digit growth rates: Brico Dépôt grew by 26.6 per cent, and even after adjustment that came to a 19.0 per cent rise. This resulted in sales to the tune of £ 463.5 mio (€ 681.4 mio).
The rates in the other countries were also meteoric. They indicate an increase of 48.2 per cent overall on sales of £ 361.2 mio (€ 531.0 mio), and of 15.2 per cent on a comparable basis. These growth rates also work far more profitably: whereas the profits in the UK and France rose by less than 14 per cent, they shot up by 64.2 per cent in the other countries