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LONDON, Nov 20 (Reuters) - British home improvement retailer
Kingfisher on Wednesday reported a worsening fall in
underlying sales in its latest quarter, underlining the task
facing its new boss.
In September, Carrefour veteran Thierry Garnier succeeded
Véronique Laury as chief executive of the group, whose main
businesses are B&Q and Screwfix in Britain and Castorama and
Brico Depot in France. Its shares have fallen 15% over the last
year.
Garnier said he would update on his strategy with full year
results in March.
"My early assessment is that we have not found the right
balance between getting the benefits of group scale and staying
close to local markets," he said.
"We are suffering from organisational complexity, and we are
trying to do too much at once with multiple large-scale
initiatives running in parallel."
Kingfisher said its total sales fell 3.2% at constant
currency to 3.0 billion pounds ($3.87 billion) in the three
months to Oct. 31, its fiscal third quarter, while like-for-like
sales fell 3.7%. That compares with a first half fall of 1.8%.
It said the drop reflected continuing disruption from new
range implementations, lower promotional activity and ongoing
operational challenges in France, and softer market conditions
in its main markets.
Like-for-like sales dropped 6.1% in France and were down 1%
in the UK and Ireland.
Kingfisher said initiatives to improve Castorama France's
performance were underway with a key focus on IT effectiveness
and supply chain efficiency.
It maintained its forecast for a flat gross margin for the
full 2019-20 year.
($1 = 0.7745 pounds)
(Reporting by James Davey; editing by Kate Holton)
