“Unusually poor spring weather” hit B&Q owner Kingfisher’s revenue, as like-for-like sales fell by 3.3%.
The group, which also owns Screwfix, made sales of £3.27 billion in the three months to the end of April, including £1.59 billion from the UK and Ireland.
But both those figures were down on a like-for-like basis, which Kingfisher CEO Thierry Garnier blamed on the weather.
“The unusually poor spring weather in the UK and France affected our seasonal sales in the quarter, impacting demand for items such as garden and outdoor products,” he said.
Much of the blow of bad weather, though, was softened by strong sales of “big-ticket” items.
Garnier expects to see better sales as weather improves, which allowed Kingfisher to maintain its guidance of £634 million in profit for the year.
During the first three weeks of May, like-for-like sales were still down, but by less, at just 1%, and almost half of this decline was because shops were closed for the King’s Coronation.
Joshua Warner, market analyst at City Index, said the results suggest customers are not cutting back on spend because of the cost-of-living crisis.
“Kingfisher saw like-for-like sales decline in the first quarter as demand for seasonal goods suffered thanks to the late start to spring, although news that demand for big ticket items has held up better than expected and that trading has improved since early April will help install some confidence and shrug-off fears that it is suffering from a pullback in spending on discretionary goods,” Warner said.
“We know profits will fall this year from elevated levels last year but investors will be pleased with its profit guidance coming in above expectations.
“Predictions that inflationary pressures will ease and news that cashflow will be able to cover a new share buyback programme later this year should also provide some support to its outlook.”
Garnier also said he expects to see cost inflation for the products Kingfisher buys to decline in the second half of the year.
Shares in Kingfisher - among London’s most shorted - rose by 1.7% today to 251.1p.
