Kingfisher ends year with increase

The UK Kingfisher Group ended its 2011/2012 financial year (to 28 January 2012) with a sales increase of 3.6 per cent (1.3 per cent like-for-like and currency-adjusted) for a total of £ 10.831 bn. The increase of 6.3 per cent in France (3.7 per cent like-for-like and currency-adjusted) to £ 4.470 bn exceeded the results posted in Britain, the home country, and Ireland in terms of both growth and volume. Here sales rose 0.1 per cent to £ 4.338 bn, but fell by 1.4 per cent like-for-like. The other foreign markets made a contribution of £ 2.023 bn, which amounts to growth of 5.8 per cent (2.2 per cent like-for-like).The rates of growth in the fourth quarter looked somewhat different, with an increase for Britain and Ireland amounting to 1.5 per cent (though minus 1.9 per cent like-for-like), and 4.6 per cent (4.2 per cent) for France. This compares with a sales decrease of 1.3 per cent in the other foreign markets, though they remained at plus 0.1 per cent like-for-like. This was caused by declines of 1.8 per cent in Spain and 3.9 per cent in China. By comparison Russia saw growth of 35.4 per cent, which still amounted to 13.2 per cent like-for-like. Kingfisher has also announced an increase of 3.5 per cent for the fourth quarter in Poland.