B&Q could open at least 50 small and medium-sized stores across the UK as it adapts to demand for more convenient local stores where goods ordered online can be picked up.
The retailer said it had eight high street outlets – called B&Q Local – in London and was perfecting the format, considering how it could better sell kitchens and bathrooms there, before considering how many in total it could open across the UK.
However, Thierry Garnier, the boss of B&Q’s parent company Kingfisher, said the group had identified 50 locations where it could open Locals or one of its medium-sized 4,000-5,000 sq metre sites – compared with 12,000 sq metres for its traditional big boxes and 300-800 sq metres for the new high street stores.
Garnier said B&Q had tested three small store formats – high street, retail parks and in Asda stores – and it had closed the supermarket outlets to focus on the other two options.
The new emphasis on smaller stores comes after Kingfisher reported a 40% slide in pre-tax profits to £611m as sales slipped 1% to £13bn in the year to 31 January as the pandemic lockdown boom in DIY unwound.
Sales fell 7% year on year at the group’s B&Q and Screwfix chains in the UK and Ireland and 1.4% at its Castorama chain in France but grew strongly in Poland, Romania, Portugal and Spain.
Garnier warned that profits were likely to be down again in the year ahead. He said there was “relative uncertainty in consumer demand”, rising costs on energy and labour as well as investment in expansion.
He said inflation was likely to ease from the middle of the year, with prices on goods made in Asia dropping and freight costs well down year on year, but he said it would take time for this to feed through to shoppers.
The group’s Screwfix chain returned to growth in the final quarter of the year and Garnier said shoppers had shown “resilience” since January as consumer confidence improved – particularly among its trade clients.
He said Kingfisher was stepping up services for those builders, plumbers and odd jobbers who were benefiting from pent up demand for jobs put on hold during the pandemic.
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There is also strong demand for energy and water-saving improvements as households try to offset rising bills.
Sales of insulation rose 32% year on year at Screwfix, while central heating controls were up 23.5%. Sales of draft excluders were up by just over a quarter year on year at B&Q, while it sold almost 80% more insulation in December, compared with a year before. Across the group, sales of smart thermostats were up 30% year on year and water butts 22% as people prepared for more periods of drought after last year.
Screwfix sells solar panels and home storage batteries in a bid to cater for home energy generation.
The group opened its first 80 Tradepoint specialist counters for tradespeople in B&Q stores in Ireland during the year and 18 more in the UK and is poised to open 25 more Screwfix outlets in France after the first five there traded well. Tradepoint makes up more than a fifth of B&Q’s sales.
