Kingfisher Plc on track to deliver strategic milestones

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Kingfisher Plc (LON:KGF), today announced Q2 trading update to 31 July 2018.

Financial highlights

	Sales 2018/19	% Total Change	% Total Change	% LFL⁽¹⁾Change
	£m	Reported	Constant currency	Constant currency
UK & Ireland	1,412	+6.0%	+6.0%	+4.2%
– B&Q UK & Ireland	1,005	+3.9%	+3.9%	+3.6%
– Screwfix	407	+11.8%	+11.8%	+5.5%
France	1,193	+0.4%	(0.7)%	(1.0)%
– Castorama	648	(3.1)%	(4.1)%	(3.8)%
– Brico Dépôt	545	+4.8%	+3.7%	+2.6%
Other International	650	+3.6%	+5.6%	+1.4%
– Poland	388	+1.8%	+2.5%	+1.3%
– Iberia ⁽²⁾	102	+0.8%	(0.3)%	(0.3)%
– Russia	99	(10.9)%	(1.1)%	+2.1%
– Romania ⁽³⁾	58	+79.5%	+80.8%	+4.6%
– Screwfix Germany	3	+21.6%	+20.4%	+20.4%
Total Group	3,255	+3.4%	+3.4%	+1.6%

· Q2 Group LFL up 1.6% helped by improved performance of weather-related categories which contributed c.+2% to Group LFL; H1 LFL -1.1% (Q1 LFL -4.0%)

· Good Q2 sales recovery at B&Q and Screwfix versus Q1 within the context of a continuing weak UK consumer backdrop

· Sales and gross margin of unified and unique ranges continued to grow

· H1 Group gross margin after clearance costs expected to be c.-40bps with Q2 ahead of Q1

· Actions in place to improve H2 Group gross margin and therefore still expect to grow the full year Group gross margin after clearance costs

· France performance in H1 reflects:

o Weaker footfall and impact of transformation-related activity at Castorama

o Continued sales growth at Brico Dépôt benefitting from new unified ranges

o Higher costs (c.+3.5% in constant currency) including phasing of marketing investment in Brico Dépôt

· £90m returned (30m shares) year to date via share buyback. Now returned £550m of c.£600m capital return commitment (4)

Kingfisher, Véronique Laury, Chief Executive Officer, said:

“We started our transformation two and a half years ago and are on track to deliver our strategic milestones for the third year in a row.

“In Q2, I’m pleased that we grew our sales after the exceptionally harsh weather conditions in Q1. In B&Q, Screwfix and Brico Dépôt France we delivered good sales growth. However, the performance of Castorama France has been more difficult and as a result we have put additional actions in place to support our full year performance in France with the benefits expected to come through in H2.

“We look forward to providing a more detailed update at our H1 results in September.”

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