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Kingfisher has announced it is raising its guidance for its half-year results after reporting that like-for-like sales in Q2 were up by 22.3% against 2019.
In light of “high levels of demand” from its customers across retail and trade, the owner of B&Q and Screwfix now expects its half-year profit to be in the range of £645m to £660m, up from the previous £580m to £600m expectation.
It also anticipates its sales to grow by 22%, up from the previous guidance of “mid-to-high teens”.
It comes as the group said it had seen a “strong” two-year growth across all of its banners, while transaction volume and average basket value were both up on a two-year basis.
Meanwhile, its e-commerce sales rocketed over the period, with a two-year growth of 188%.
Thierry Garnier, CEO, said: “Kingfisher’s performance in the second quarter to date has been ahead of expectations, with positive progress against our strategic priorities continuing to drive share growth in our key markets.
“With very strong comparatives from the previous year, we are pleased to see growth being delivered on a two-year basis across all categories and channels, with e-commerce sales in particular nearly three times higher than the same period in 2019.”
He added: “With the strong performance in the quarter to date, we now anticipate first half sales and adjusted pre-tax profit to be ahead of our previous expectations. We continue to be encouraged by the supportive long-term trends for our industry and are confident of continued outperformance of our wider markets.
“We look forward to providing a detailed update on the ‘Powered by Kingfisher’ strategy, our performance and full year outlook at our interim results on 21 September.”
