B&Q owner Kingfisher in the merde as French trading slides

Shares in B&Q owner Kingfisher crashed almost 7% on Wednesday after weak sales in France and disruption from its turnaround dragged on the business.

The retailer, which also owns Screwfix and France’s Castorama, reported a 0.6% decline in sales in the three months to April 30.

In France, sales in stores open for more than a year were down 5.5%, compared with a 1% fall across the French home-improvement market.

In the UK, B&Q sales edged up just 0.5%, helped by strong growth online, and Screwfix saw a 12.6% jump in same-store sales.

Chief executive Véronique Laury said there had been “some disruption as we clear old ranges, remerchandise new ranges and continue the roll-out of our unified IT platform”.

Shares slid 24.2p to 334.9p.

Furniture giant Ikea promoted Jesper Brodin to chief executive. Brodin, currently head of Ikea’s Swedish business, replaces Peter Agnefjall.