Kingfisher said this morning that it aims to deliver a £500m annual uplift in profit after five years, over and above its 'business as usual' profit.
The B&Q and Screwfix owner is outlining its ambitions at a capital markets day in London for institutional investors and analysts, who will hear about Kingfisher's five-year transformation plan.

Underpinning it is the group's move, announced last year, to leverage the scale of the business by becoming a single, unified company - 'One Kingfisher'.

"We are excited to now reveal our new strategy and our focus over the next five years," chief executive officer Véronique Laury said today, "based on the three key pillars of creating a unified, unique and leading home improvement offer, driving our digital capability and optimising our operational efficiency.

"With a clear roadmap now in place alongside clear long-term targets, the size of the five-year opportunity is significant. We do acknowledge the challenges ahead; however, having already made good progress since March last year, and with 80,000 committed colleagues, we feel confident about our plan and look forward to moving on to the first year of our transformation."

Along with the profit boost, the plan aims to return around £600m of capital to shareholders over the next three years (expected to be via share buyback), in addition to the annual ordinary dividend.

Kingfisher will say it is looking for a 5% reduction in cost of goods, higher sales from price reinvestment, and a more differentiated and leading offer. The group has had "very encouraging results from the first wave of our unified core essential offer, supporting the business case".

It will also invest in its core e-commerce platforms, and build its capability "to enable us to unlock more of our customers' complex home improvement journeys".

The group says there will be limited expansion over the period, the focus of which in the medium term will be Screwfix Europe.