Kingfisher: UK & Ireland LFL Sales Up 5.9%; Guidance Reiterated

Kingfisher plc has published a Q1 trading update to 30 April 2025, noting a 'good start to the year' and reiterating full year guidance.

Unaudited Q1 25/26 sales (three months ended 30 April 2025)

• Q1 sales of £3.3bn; total sales +2.2% (constant currency), including a -0.9% calendar impact(2). Underlying total sales growth of +3.1%.
  
  
• Like-for-like (LFL) sales growth of +1.8%, underlying growth of +2.7%.
  
  
• Volume and transaction growth driven by seasonal categories, which had a positive mix impact on average selling price. Retail price inflation was flat.
  
  
• Continued market share gains(3) in the UK & Ireland, France and Poland.
  
  
• Further progress on trade initiatives: trade sales penetration(4) of 17% (Q1 24/25: 13%).
  
  
• E-commerce sales growth of 9.3%, with e-commerce sales penetration(5) reaching 20%.
  
  
• Castorama France store restructuring and modernisation plan on-track.
  
  
• Strong growth in seasonal categories, driven by the UK. Second quarter of underlying growth in 'big-ticket' sales, supported by recent range reviews. Stable underlying performance in core categories.
  
  
• Reiterating full year guidance: expect FY 25/26 adjusted PBT of c.£480m to £540m and free cash flow of c. £420m to £480m.

Thierry Garnier, Chief Executive Officer, said: "We have made a good start to the year with underlying sales growth of 3.1%, market share gains in all key regions and further progress in our strategic priorities.

"Our UK banners performed particularly well, driven by strong seasonal sales and growth in trade and ecommerce. We have successfully completed the conversion of eight former Homebase stores, all of which will be operating under the B&Q banner by the end of May. France delivered sequential improvement, outperforming challenging market conditions, while Poland, as expected, experienced short-term volatility due to geopolitical factors.

"It is still early in the year and consumer sentiment remains mixed across our markets. We are focused on executing our strategic growth priorities, maintaining discipline on margin and costs, and driving shareholder returns. We are confident in delivering our full year guidance."

FY25/26 outlook and guidance

Our market outlook scenarios and guidance for FY 25/26 are unchanged to those set out in our FY 24/25 results; details are set out in the appendix to this release.

Q1 trading highlights by banner
All commentary below is in constant currency.

UK & Ireland

• Market growth of low single digit(9), helped by favourable weather driving strong demand for seasonal products.
  
  
• B&Q - LFL growth was driven by strong seasonal category sales, with a positive performance also seen in core and 'big-ticket' categories. B&Q's marketplace penetration(10) reached 45% in Q1, with focus on onboarding international vendors. We have also completed the conversion of eight stores acquired from Homebase, with six now open and the remaining two set to open by the end of May. 
  
  
• Tradepoint - B&Q's trade-focused banner, delivered a strong performance with LFL sales growth of 7.4%, as the business continued to strengthen its relationship with trade customers, supported by trade sales partners, now present in 77 stores. 
  
  
• Screwfix - LFL sales growth and market share gains were driven by an increased product range for trade customers and continued growth of one-minute click & collect and Screwfix Sprint, with rapid delivery now in as little as 20 minutes.

France

• Market decline of mid single digit(9). 
  
  
• Castorama - improved underlying trends across all categories, notwithstanding the challenging market conditions. On track with restructuring and modernisation plan. Good performance in e-commerce as Castorama continues to scale its online marketplace, with penetration(10) reaching 17% after just one year. 
  
  
• Brico Dépôt - improvement in underlying sales trend driven by positive performance in seasonal categories. Core and 'big-ticket' categories were stable, with continued LFL growth in kitchens supported by recent range reviews. Brico Dépôt continued to strengthen its trade proposition with trade sales penetration reaching 12% (Q1 24/25: 8%) and sign-ups to its loyalty programme increased 25% since year-end.

Poland

• Market decline of low single digit(9), with current geopolitical factors adversely impacting the Polish consumer in the quarter. Market weakness was reflected broadly across all categories. 
  
  
• Castorama continued to strengthen its trade proposition with trade sales penetration reaching 25% (Q1 24/25: 12%) and further scaled its marketplace offering, which was launched in January.

Other International

• Strong growth in Iberia across core and 'big-ticket' categories, with seasonal impacted by adverse weather. Market share gains in Spain(3) with sales growth supported by strong demand in Valencia, following flood damage last year. On 2 May 2025 the Group completed the divestment of its 100% equity interest in Brico Dépôt Romania. Screwfix France saw continued progress with LFL sales growth in line with expectations as sites mature.

Q1 25/26 LFL sales by category

• Core(11) (64% of sales): Geographic performance was in line with consumer trends - resilient in the UK, softer in France and Poland.
  
  
• 'Big-ticket'(12) (15% of sales): Underlying growth was driven by B&Q, against soft prior year comparatives. Group order book(14) at the end of Q1 was positive versus prior year.
  
  
• Seasonal(13) (21% of sales): Strong double-digit growth across our UK banners, largely due to favourable weather conditions. Some of this growth is likely to have been pulled forward from Q2.  

Appendix

Market outlook scenarios and guidance for FY 25/26 (unchanged)

Against the backdrop above, our focus remains on delivering against the factors within our control, namely: (1) continuing to grow our market share, (2) executing against our strategic objectives, including further growing our ecommerce and trade customer sales, and delivering on our operational objectives in France, and (3) effectively managing our gross margin, operating costs and inventory.

Guidance

FY 25/26 PBT and free cash flow guidance remains unchanged. We expect adjusted PBT of c.£480m to £540m, and free cash flow of c.£420m to £480m.

Tariffs

Kingfisher does not have any US sales or operations. We source most of our products in Europe from the same country in which those products are then sold. We also source 20-25% of our products from Asia. We therefore expect little direct impact from any potential changes in cross border tariffs but remain watchful of any broader impact on both inflation and market demand.

Download the full document here

Source : Kingfisher plc

For all the very latest news and intelligence on the UK's largest home improvement and garden retailers, sign up for the Insight DIY weekly newsletter.