Kingfisher, the retail group behind B&Q and Screwfix, raised its full-year profit guidance after adjusted pre-tax profit rose 9.9% to £404 million in the first half. Screwfix continued to outperform while B&Q’s like-for-like sales fell, as the group narrowed its outlook to a tighter, higher range.
Kingfisher is the group operating B&Q and Screwfix in the UK, two chains built on very different formats: B&Q’s larger destination stores aimed at home improvement shoppers, and Screwfix’s smaller, tightly clustered trade counters aimed at tradespeople collecting materials quickly. Its first-half trading update showed group sales up 0.8% to £6.86 billion, with adjusted pre-tax profit rising to £404 million from £368 million a year earlier.
The board raised its full-year adjusted pre-tax profit guidance to a range of £595 million to £625 million, narrowed from a wider range set out earlier in the year. Screwfix like-for-like sales rose 5.6%, while B&Q like-for-like sales fell 2.9%, continuing the divergence between the group’s trade-focused and DIY-focused businesses.
Screwfix keeps outperforming B&Q
Screwfix’s growth was driven by continued demand from tradespeople and its network of trade counters, a format built around quick collection and account-based buying rather than browsing. Many Screwfix sites sit on small retail park or industrial estate units rather than the larger footprints B&Q typically occupies, letting the chain add sites at relatively low cost, the same unit economics behind the lower entry figures across the business services franchises recruiting in the UK.
B&Q’s like-for-like sales fell over the same period, reflecting softer demand in the broader home improvement and DIY market, where consumers have been delaying bigger discretionary projects. The divergence between the two chains has been a recurring theme in Kingfisher’s recent results, with Screwfix consistently the stronger performer within the group’s UK operations.
Good to know
Like-for-like sales measure turnover from shops open in both periods being compared, stripping out the effect of newly opened or closed sites. It is the standard measure UK retailers use to show whether existing shops are trading better or worse year on year.
Guidance raised for the second time this year
Kingfisher narrowed and raised its full-year guidance to between £595 million and £625 million of adjusted pre-tax profit, having previously guided to a wider range. The upgrade came despite group-wide like-for-like sales growth of just 0.3% across the half, pointing to profit gains driven more by cost control and channel mix than by a broad recovery in trading volumes. It is the second time this year the board has moved its guidance upward, a signal that the improvement is being treated internally as more than a single strong half.
What it signals for the wider home improvement sector
The results land against a backdrop of subdued UK consumer spending on home improvement, where footfall has been uneven across retail parks and high streets alike. Screwfix’s trade-counter format, built around a large network of small, easily replicated sites, has proved more resilient than B&Q’s larger destination stores, a pattern operators of sizeable multi-site estates are watching closely: a smaller, more standardised unit can be quicker and cheaper to roll out than a large-format store, and easier to keep profitable when footfall is uneven.
A standardised unit that can be replicated at low cost is also the basis on which networks expand through independent operators rather than their own capital, as what a franchise is sets out. Kingfisher did not set out store opening plans for either chain alongside the update, and gave no guidance on staffing levels across the two businesses.
