B&Q owner Kingfisher has announced a special dividend as its profits rose in the first quarter. In the 13 weeks to May 3rd, group sales were up 6.1% on a reported basis, with an 18.8% rise in retail profits boosted by favourable weather conditions compared to the previous year and “encouraging” underlying signs in the UK and Poland.
However, on-going weak consumer confidence in France held results back. Sir Ian Cheshire, chief executive, said:
"We have made a strong start to the year, capitalising on more favourable weather conditions right across Europe to achieve sales and profit growth in France, the UK & Poland, our three largest markets. Whilst this is encouraging, the first quarter is one of our smallest and the growth achieved largely reflects comparisons with the very difficult start to last year. We will annualise stronger figures in our second quarter and so, as ever, we will look at the whole of the first half results to properly assess our underlying performance.
"Our 'Creating the Leader' programme continues to progress well. We have also made a good start with our key corporate priorities this year having completed the sale of our stake in Hornbach, entered exclusive negotiations to acquire Mr Bricolage in France, opened our first store in Portugal and started to return surplus capital to shareholders. Furthermore, our self-help initiatives continue to underpin our results and as we enter the key summer trading period our focus remains on driving cash margin, managing costs tightly and delivering shareholder returns."
