Kingfisher (LSE:KGF), the owner of B&Q, Screwfix, Castorama and Brico Dépôt, raised its full-year guidance after adjusted pre-tax profit rose 9.9% to £404m in the six months to 31 July.
The home improvement retailer now expects adjusted pre-tax profit of £595m to £635m for the full year, up from a prior range of £565m to £625m.
Free cash flow guidance also moved higher, to £480m-£520m from £450m-£510m previously.
Total sales including marketplace gross merchandise sales rose 1.6%, with like-for-like sales up 0.3% on higher customer transactions.
Screwfix led the group, delivering like-for-like sales growth of 5.6% and market share gains, alongside gains at Poland and Spain.
Brico Dépôt France lagged, with performance hit by heatwaves affecting its category mix, while Castorama France and B&Q held share.
Trade sales excluding Screwfix grew 16%, lifting trade penetration to 31% of group sales, and e-commerce sales excluding Screwfix also rose 16%, taking e-commerce penetration to 22%.
Marketplace gross merchandise value jumped 42% to £372m, with profit contribution nearly doubling to £13.4m from £7m a year earlier.
Statutory pre-tax profit rose 18.4% to £400m, helped by the absence of a £31m loss on the disposal of Romania booked in the prior year.
Adjusted earnings per share climbed 16.1% to 17.8p, aided by profit growth and share buybacks.
"We delivered a solid H1 performance, growing sales, gross margin and profits through market share gains and continued momentum across trade, e-commerce, marketplace and group sourcing," said chief executive Thierry Garnier.
Kingfisher generated £339m of free cash flow and maintained its interim dividend at 3.8p per share.
The company is running a £300m share buyback, with £125m completed and a third £50m tranche starting this week, expected to finish by December.
Kingfisher reports its third-quarter trading update on 24 November.
News Intelligence what this means for the company
Kingfisher raised full-year profit guidance to £595m–£635m (midpoint £615m, up from £595m prior midpoint) after adjusted pre-tax profit grew 9.9% to £404m in H1, driven by trade (up 16% ex-Screwfix) and e-commerce (up 16% ex-Screwfix) momentum, plus a near-doubling of marketplace profit contribution to £13.4m. The upgrade signals confidence that momentum in higher-margin channels and Screwfix's 5.6% like-for-like growth can offset weakness in France and modest overall like-for-like growth of 0.3%.
The guidance raise and acceleration in trade/e-commerce penetration (now 31% and 22% of sales respectively) suggest Kingfisher is successfully shifting its mix toward faster-growing, higher-margin channels. However, the 0.3% like-for-like growth and France headwinds indicate underlying consumer demand remains subdued; the upgrade rests partly on operational leverage and buyback accretion (adjusted EPS +16.1%), not broad-based sales recovery.
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