Owners Kingfisher said B&Q sales in the UK and Ireland were down 8.9% to £968m for the second quarter. Retail profits fell to £65m as margin and cost initiatives were unable to offset the impact of lost sales.
B&Q said sales of outdoor seasonal products, which can generate close to a third of the company’s total business in the first three months of the year, were down about 30%.
Screwfix increased sales by 10.2% to £137m, despite what the company called a challenging market for smaller tradesmen. The increase was driven by the introduction of new ranges, the opening of eight new outlets and the mobile ‘click, pay and collect’ offer.
Kingfisher’s total like for like sales in the UK and Ireland were down 10.4% to £1.1bn with profits down 9.8% to £75m. Total Kingfisher Group sales fell 3.6%.
Kingfisher chief executive Ian Cheshire said: "We anticipated the first quarter would be challenging, compared with last year’s strong growth, which was boosted by favourable spring weather and public holidays. But an extremely wet April this year in the UK and France compounded the difficulty, adversely impacting sales of outdoor and seasonal categories."
One break in the cloud for B&Q was that sales of indoor decoration products were up as customers switched some of their home improvement activities indoors.
"With the key summer season still ahead of us, we remain confident that we are well prepared to capitalise on any improvement in conditions," Mr Cheshire said.
