Weather takes wind out of B&Q sales

● But boss insists her turnaround plans beginning to have an impact

margin, after clearance costs.

“Meanwhile, we are into the final year of our unified IT platform roll out with Poland now underway and Brico Depot France due to start soon.”

Nick Bubb, retailing analyst and consultant, said: “The Q1 trading update does not make happy reading, with [group] like-for-like sales down by 4 per cent, but the company blames nearly all of that fall on the weather”.

Meanwhile, official figures showed that retail sales bounced back in April, staging a muted recovery after the disruption caused by the Beast from the East.

Sales increased by 1.6 per cent on March as all sectors except for department stores recovered from the exceptionally snowy weather that disrupted travel and kept shoppers at home, the Office for National Statistics said.

However the three-month figure to April, which smooths out monthly volatility, shows sales remained relatively flat with just a slight increase of 0.1 per cent.

The combined two months of March and April show a general slowdown on the same period last year, with growth at 1.3 per cent compared with 2.9 per cent for the two months in 2017. Petrol sales showed the largest recovery in April, up 4.7 per cent.