Exit from South Korea

Kingfisher is going to withdraw from South Korea with the closing down of its two B&Q stores in the capital city of Seoul. The reasons given by the company for this decision are the problem of obtaining new locations and the rising cost of property. In the words of Steve Gilman, B&Q Asia's chief executive, "It has proved very difficult to find new sites and therefore it seems unlikely that our business there will reach sufficient scale to meet Kingfisher's growth and economic returns criteria."