The new chief executive of Kingfisher will be given the freedom to consider a possible break-up of the DIY group after its chairman promised that he would not be “handcuffed” on strategy. Andy Cosslett said that although he believed Kingfisher had “the right building blocks” in place, Thierry Garnier, 53, the Carrefour veteran who takes over from Véronique Laury as chief executive next week, could form his own view. Mr Cosslett, 64, was speaking after the release of first-half results showing that wary British consumers and a poor performance in France had hit sales and profits at the B&Q and Screwfix owner. Kingfisher, which has 77,300 staff, owns DIY brands across Europe. It employs about 25,000 people in the UK and Ireland at 923 B&Q
Andy Cosslett reported that like-for-like sales fell 1.8% in the six months to end July with pre-tax profit falling 12.5% to £245m due to poor performance in the UK and France . B&Q saw like-for-like sales in the UK and Ireland fall by 3.2% , which was offset by like-for-like sales at Brico Depot rising 5.1% due to strong digital growth and the addition of new stores. In Ireland like-for-like sales were 4.3% lower at Castorama and fell by 4.6% at B&Q . The company warning that the outlook for the remainder of the six months to end July was mixed.