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Home improvement retailer Kingfisher has lowered its upper guidance for its FY 22/23 pre-tax profit range despite seeing an increase in sales for the three months to October 31.
The B&Q owner said it now expects its FY adjusted pre-tax profits to come in between £730m to £760m.
However, overall sales increased 1.1% to £3.3bn during the Q3 period which is “significantly” ahead of its pre-pandemic performance with a three year like for like increase of 15.3%.
Tradepoint was Kingfisher’s best performing brand seeing a 1.9% increase like for like and a nearly 30% increase on its three year like for like performance.
Screwfix has also performed well as Kingfisher opened two Screwfix stores in France. The company plans to open more stores in France in 2023. The company also successfully launched B&Q stores in Spain and Portugal.
The company also saw a large increase in e-commerce sales, up 138%compared with three years ago with a year on year increase of 2.3%.
Lastly, the company revealed it experienced a good start to trading in the Q4 with three-year like-for-like increasing 16.2% and normal like-for-like up 2.8% for the three weeks to 19 November 2022.
CEO Thierry Garnier said: “Our sales trends continued to be resilient, with like-for-like sales 15.3% ahead of pre-pandemic levels in the quarter. This was supported by continued market share growth, including strong gains at Screwfix, TradePoint and Castorama Poland.
“While the market backdrop remains challenging, DIY sales continue to be supported by new industry trends 2 such as more working from home and a clear step-up in customer investment in energy saving and efficiency. DIFM and trade activity also continues to be well supported by robust pipelines for home improvement work.”
He added: “Competitive pricing remains a priority. With our customers facing rising living costs, we are determined to make home improvement affordable and accessible particularly through our own exclusive brands which represent 45% of our sales.
“We continue to execute our strategy at pace, and to invest for growth. Last month marked a
key moment in our history with the opening of our first Screwfix store in France, with a total
of four to five stores due to open this financial year and many more planned for 2023. We
launched our e-commerce marketplace in Spain and Portugal, building upon the early
success of B&Q’s marketplace in the UK.”
