B&Q hammer blow to staff

Kingfisher cuts jobs but gifts £50m

THE owner of DIY giant B&Q is handing £50million to shareholders while slashing thousands of jobs.

Kingfisher is rewarding investors through another share buyback, part of a £600m threeyear pledge, while B&Q workers are reeling from savage cuts.

The Mirror has detailed the impact of shift changes on 1,700 B&Q night staff.

Another 441 “twilight” workers were told they could move to days or face the axe, without the option of taking redundancy.

Yesterday Kingfisher announced sales at B&Q fell 2.8% to £850million in the three months to the end of October.

Sister chain Screwfix did better with sales up 4.1%.

But shares in Kingfisher fell to a seven-year low of 238p yesterday as it revealed ongoing problems in its Castorama business in France, where sales tumbled 7.3%.

The company also confirmed it was ditching its businesses in Russia, Spain and Portugal.

Boss Veronique Laury insisted the firm’s turnaround plans remained on track.

She said: “Transformation on this scale is tough, and we are operating in a difficult retail environment.

“We face challenges and we are addressing them.”

An overhaul of B&Q has seen 65 shops shut and about 3,000 jobs cut over the past two-anda- half years. The chain has also been shaking up its ranges and working to improve its online offering.

Russ Mould, investment director at City firm AJ Bell, said: “How long can Kingfisher’s board wait until admitting that its ‘transformation’ programme isn’t working? The French arm once again is a shambles and B&Q in the UK isn’t exactly thriving, either.

“Poor results are happening too often with this business and it seems odd that its chief executive Veronique Laury has managed to hold on to her job.”