Kingfisher sees growth in first quarter

The British Kingfisher group has completed the first quarter of its current financial year (to 30 April 2011) with sales growth of 4.7 per cent on the same period last year to £ 2.730 bn. Its B&Q chain in Britain and Ireland expanded by 1.5 per cent (also like-for-like) to £ 1.063 bn. Growth of the Kingfisher trading channels was considerably stronger in France. Here Castorama grew by 6.4 per cent to £ 609 mio, and Brico Dépôt by 6.2 per cent (4.1 per cent like-for-like) to £ 500 mio. The group’s Polish stores notched up sales of £ 250 mio, an increase of 7.7 per cent (4.5 per cent like-for-like). Sales in Russia rose by 26.1 per cent to £ 53 mio following one new opening. The Turkish chain Koçtaş, in which Kingfisher holds a 50 per cent stake, increased like-for-like sales by 9.3 per cent. The 17 Brico Dépôt stores in Spain recorded sales of £ 63 mio. The 40 remaining B&Q outlets in China, with a sales volume of £ 68 mio, were able to cut their sales losses back to 8.5 per cent.