Kingfisher in growth drive

Kingfisher, Europe’s biggest home improvements retailer, said new stores and a drive to improve profit margins will help it to cope with a tough economic backdrop, as it beat forecasts with a 20 per cent rise in annual profit.

The group said it would open 67 stores this financial year and test new formats aimed at making “do it yourself” easier for customers. It will also step up a drive to improve profit margins by buying more products centrally, and directly, from cheap manufacturing countries like China.

This drive helped to boost profit before tax and one-off items to £807m in the year ended January 28, topping analysts’ average forecast of £799m.