Kingfisher has maintained its guidance for the year as improving sales in the UK and Ireland help to offset a weaker performance across its French and Polish arms.
The B&Q and Screwfix owner reported total first quarter sales edged up 0.3% to £3.3bn in the three months to 30 April. On a like-for-like basis, sales slipped 0.9%.
It comes as UK revenue grew 2.7% on a constant currency basis, with both banners “growing ahead of their respective markets”.
B&Q sales rose 0.4%, boosted by a strong performance in ecommerce and the trade segment helping to offset weaker sales in ‘big-ticket’ categories.
The DIY retailer reported online sales rocketed 22.8% year-on-year, with its marketplace reaching 41% participation in April.
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Meanwhile, Screwfix sales jumped 6.4% thanks to recovering demand from trade customers.
The positive UK and Ireland performance helped to offset a 5.1% drop in sales for the group’s French division, which it attributed to “ongoing weakness in the broader market”.
Kingfisher chief executive Thierry Garnier said: “Trading in the first quarter has been in line with our expectations. We have seen continued resilience in our core categories, although ‘big-ticket’ sales have been weak reflecting the broader market as expected.
“We continue to drive our strategic priorities at pace and remain focused on delivering market share growth. Leveraging our learnings from TradePoint in attracting trade customers in the UK, we are excited to have widened trade loyalty programmes across all our banners.
“We remain focused on driving productivity gains and maintaining tight control of our costs and inventories.”
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