By Neil Maidment
LONDON (Reuters) - Kingfisher (L:KGF), Europe's largest home improvements retailer, said it could open 200 more of its strongly performing trade-focused British Screwfix stores, where sales have surged on demand for "do it for me" projects over "do it yourself".
The group, which also runs the B&Q chain in Britain and Castorama and Brico Depot in France and other countries, said it could take its 412-strong Screwfix estate past the 600 mark at a rate of almost 60 openings a year, targeting bigger cities.
"What we are aiming with the 200 stores is to put Screwfix really close to the tradesmen because they won't drive very far to find a Screwfix. Time is money for them," new Chief Executive Veronique Laury told reporters on Tuesday.
The expansion adds to a bigger plan to reshape Kingfisher announced by Laury in March, which includes closing 60 B&Q stores, cutting product lines, developing unified garden and bathroom businesses and starting a revitalisation programme for big stores across Europe.
The group said it was pleased with progress on its plans, with a new IT system and B&Q store closures on track, as it posted a 2.3 percent fall in adjusted pretax profit to 384 million pounds for the 26 weeks to Aug.1, due to adverse foreign exchange movements and weak trade in France.
That was slightly ahead of an analyst forecast of 380 million pounds supplied by the company, though shares in the firm were down 2.8 percent to 350 pence at 0757 GMT on the group's cautious overall outlook.
"In the short term, whilst we remain encouraged by the macroeconomic backdrop in the UK, we remain cautious on the outlook for France," Chief Financial Officer Karen Witts said.
Improving markets in Britain and Poland helped push group like-for-like sales up by 2.0 percent in the half, helping offset weaker demand in France, its biggest division, where low consumer confidence and a weak housing market is hitting trade.
In Britain, Screwfix, which supplies tools, plumbing and electrical equipment predominantly to tradesmen, grew underlying sales by 16.5 percent, helped by new ranges and strong growth in orders from mobile phones.
The group's larger UK business B&Q, aimed at the mass market, saw a 0.7 percent rise in underlying sales.
Laury said the Screwfix expansion would not eat into B&Q profits as the two businesses served different needs - with the strongest growing categories at Screwfix being electricals and plumbing, compared to wallpaper and paint at B&Q.