A stronger economy helped combined sales at Kingfisher's UK B&Q and Screwfix businesses rise by 5.5%, and by 4.6% on a like-for-like basis, in the 13 weeks to October 31, the company said this morning.
B&Q UK and Ireland sales were up 1.2%, and by 2.4% LFL, to £931m, with sales of outdoor seasonal and building products up 6.3%, and indoor products, excluding showroom, up 1.8%. Showroom products rose 0.4%.

At Screwfix sales surged by 23.4% and by 13.3% LFL, to £278m, driven by its omnichannel trade sales capability, new and extended trade ranges and 13 new outlets.

Sales within Kingfisher's French businesses were, however, lacklustre, up by just 1.5% and by 0.1% LFL, reflecting a continuing soft market. At Castorama they put on 0.5% but like-for-like sales fell 0.2%, while sales at Brico Dépôt were up by 2.8% and by only 0.4% LFL, impacted by the slow housebuilding market.

Overall, Kingfisher's third-quarter sales rose by 4.0% in constant currency and by 2.6% LFL to £2.7bn. Retail profit was up 0.4% in constant currencies to £223m.

Commenting on the results, Kingfisher chief executive officer Véronique Laury said: "Q3 trading conditions have followed a similar trend to the first half of the year, reflecting the more encouraging macroeconomic backdrop in the UK, offset by a softer market in France.

"In the meantime, we continue to make good progress with our 'one' Kingfisher plan. The unified IT system, a key enabler of this journey, continues to progress well. In addition we have secured a further five agreements on the B&Q stores already planned for closure, taking the total to 31.

"I am very encouraged by development work on the first wave of the unified 'core essential' ranges, which will land in stores from next year."