European home improvement retailer Kingfisher has reported strong progress on strategic goals and market share growth across all key regions for the fiscal year 2024/25 (FY24/25).
The company operates B&Q and Screwfix in the UK & Ireland, and Castorama and Brico Dépôt in France.
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The group saw a statutory profit before tax of £307m for FY24/25, plummeting by 35.4% from £475m reported in FY23/24.
This significant drop is largely due to lower operating profit, compounded by net store asset and goodwill impairments amounting to £178m, driven by increased discount rates in France and revised financial projections.
During the fiscal year, the retailer recorded a downturn in total sales to £12.78bn ($16.52bn), a 1.5% decrease from the previous year’s £12.98bn.
It also experienced a 1.7% reduction in like-for-like (LFL) sales, which includes a minor positive impact of 0.2% due to the leap year.
In a geographical breakdown, the UK & Ireland saw a marginal LFL sales increase of 0.2%.
However, this was overshadowed by significant decline of 6.2% in France and a 0.1% decline in Poland.
During the year ended 31 January 2025, gross profit for Kingfisher also fell somewhat, dropping 0.3% to £4.76bn compared to £4.77bn in the preceding year.
Despite this, the company managed to improve its gross margin percentage by 50 basis points to 37.3%, up from 36.8%, which reflects the effective management of product costs.
Retail profit presented a more pronounced decline of 6.6% on a constant currency basis to £696m, compared to £749m in the previous fiscal year.
This downturn is attributed to lower profits in France and increased losses from Kingfisher’s joint venture in Turkey. However, these were partly balanced by higher profits in Poland and reduced losses in Romania.
In FY25/26, Kingfisher expects an adjusted PBT ranging between £480m to £540m and anticipates generating free cash flow of £420m to £480m.
The company has announced a new share buyback programme valued at £300m.
Despite current headwinds, Kingfisher remains optimistic about the medium to long-term prospects for the sector and is targeting an annual free cash flow of more than £500m from FY26/27 onwards.
Screwfix recently disclosed an expansion plan that will see up to 35 new stores opening in the UK and Ireland by January 2026, creating more than 400 jobs.
