B&Q’s tough winter as sales dropped

B&Q’s owner Kingfisher said the UK and Ireland performance was offset by better trading at Screwfix, where sales rose 10.3 per cent on a year ago due to new outlets and the roll-out of its ‘click, pay and collect’ initiative.

Kingfisher chief executive Ian Cheshire admitted that the final quarter of the year to February 2 mirrored a tough year as a whole, but that it was still in good shape with a bigger market share and a strong balance sheet.

Across the UK and Ireland, sales of £997m for the quarter were 5.8 per cent lower on a like-for-like basis and including currency movements.

B&Q’s total sales of £842m were down 6.4 per cent on a total and underlying basis, reflecting the weak consumer backdrop in the UK and the “particularly challenging environment” for its nine stores in Ireland.

Heavy snowfall in January also impacted demand.