Kingfisher shares sank on Tuesday after the DIY specialist announced falling sales and profit amid difficult trading conditions.
Despite increasing market share, Kingfisher’s sales fell 1.5% in the year to January 2025 and operating profit fell 29%.
The results were a real kick in the teeth for investors, and shares were down over 13% at the time of writing.
“Kingfisher is stuck in reverse gear. The B&Q owner is one of the most shorted stocks on the UK market as hedge funds bet that its problems can’t be fixed in the current fragile retail environment. They have been right so far, with the shares slumping even further on its latest set of results,” Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.
Thierry Garnier, Chief Executive Officer of Kingfisher, used the first line of his comment on results to highlight market share growth in all six of their key regions. Although this shows Kingfisher are doing a good job of increasing their prominence in the industry, the fact is that the industry they operate in is facing extreme pressure.
“The B&Q and owner has been turning the screw on its competitors and eked out market share growth in all regions, but it is profit that investors really care about,” said Derren Nathan, head of equity research Hargreaves Lansdown.
“There’s only so long that discounting can be sustained for. France in particular was impacted, with retail profit slumping over 30%, with Poland being the bright spot. However, the UK still dominates and here performance was broadly flat. With higher labour costs around the corner and consumer sentiment under pressure, the Group has come out with conservative guidance for this year’s pre-tax profit in the £480mn-£540mn range, 6% behind forecasts at the mid-point.