Weather hits Kingfisher hard

Kingfisher, the British DIY group, completed the first half-year (to 28 July 2012) of its 2012/2013 financial year with a decline in sales. These fell by 3.3 per cent compared with the same period last year to £ 5.478 bn. Sales would have risen by one per cent without the effect of currency fluctuations to the amount of £ 25 mio. On a like-for-like basis sales declined by 2.8 per cent. For the most part CEO Ian Cheshire blames the “unprecedentedly bad weather throughout the key spring and summer seasons in northern Europe”.Sales in Britain and Ireland declined by 1.8 per cent to £ 2.264 bn. The group’s main sales format, B&Q, recorded sales down by as much as 3.0 per cent, and 6.0 per cent down like-for-like. The figures from France show sales down 5.8 per cent to £ 2.206 bn, or 0.6 per cent down like-for-like; the result would have been an increase of 1.1 per cent in constant currencies. On the other hand there was an increase of 2.3 per cent overall in Poland for a total of £ 513 mio, though a decline of 4.1 per cent like-for-like. In Russia the company notched up growth of 48.3 per cent to £ 198 mio, which was not only from new openings: the sales of older stores were 19.3 per cent up as well. The sales of the Koçtas stores in Turkey, in which Kingfisher holds a fifty per cent stake, increased by 6.8 per cent to £ 162 mio, but were 4.2 per cent down like-for-like. In Spain sales came to £ 129 mio, an increase of 2.1 per cent (4.8 per cent down like-for-like). Sales of £ 168 mio in China revealed a decline of 5.5 per cent, or 4.7 per cent down like-for-like.