Kingfisher avoids weather woes

B&Q-owner Kingfisher managed to sidestep the wet weather after promotions and heavy marketing encouraged shoppers to fork out on non-seasonal products.

The Do-It-Yourself chain usually sells the lion’s share of its plants, barbecue’s and outdoor items during its second quarter, but consumers stayed inside to dodge the elements.

The retailer changed tack by discounting paint (sales rose 21pc) and pushing wall coverings, up 9.5pc, as shoppers decided to improve their homes instead.

The impact of the rain was not all bad – sales of slug pellets soared 51pc as molluscs thrived in the damp conditions as did sales of garden mowers, up 42.7pc, to cut thriving lawns. Sales of hosepipes fell 38pc as mother nature took care of the watering.

The nimble footwork by chief executive Ian Cheshire meant underlying sales fell 0.4pc for the 10 weeks to July 7, an improvement on the 4.8pc fall the quarter before.

But the shares fell 3.6p to 271.6p as the firm warned profit margins had been hit by the extra costs involved with shifting the stock.

Separately investors in Mothercare spat their dummies out at chairman Alan Parker with 17pc refusing to back his re-election to the board at the baby retailer’s annual meeting.

They were vexed his pay packet included incentive shares as chairman pay is not typically linked to the performance of firms they head.

Mothercare said this was an exception because Parker had taken on executive responsibilities during the year having permanently dispatched previous chief executive Ben Gordon to the naughty chair.

Underlying sales fell 6.7pc for the 15 weeks to July 14 but the shares rose 9.5p to 214.75p after new boss Simon Calver said his turnaround plan was on course to deliver during the second half of the year.

The wet weather also hit retail sales volumes which edged just 0.1pc higher between May and June according to the Office for National Statistics figures – far short of City expectations of 0.6pc growth.