Winter woes for Bunnings

WESFARMERS has blamed bad winter weather for another dramatic fall in sales at its Bunnings venture in the UK and Ireland.

Sales in the three months to March 31 fell 13.5 per cent from a year ago to $374 million, and store-onstore sales, which strips out the effect of new openings, were down 15.4 per cent.

Store-on-store sales in the financial year to date are down 13.9 per cent.

Wesfarmers incurred $1.02 billion in impairments against Bunnings UK and Ireland in the first half of the financial year.