Kingfisher
Kingfisher, Europe's biggest home improvements retailer,
The company, who runs the B&Q and Screwfix chains in Britain, said third quarter sales fell 3.6 per cent to £2.8bn. France saw the biggest drop and sales fell 9.3 per cent to 1,064m during the same period.
[XX], chief executive, said:
Its shares were trading [UP/DOWN] [XX] per cent at [XX]p in [XX] trade.
Sir Ian Chesire, group chief exec, said:
Trading conditions in our largest and most significant market, France, were particularly difficult and deteriorated across the quarter, impacted by the weak economic backdrop.
In the UK however, where conditions have been more favourable, we have delivered LFL growth with Screwfix performing particularly well, delivering a 25% increase in sales on top of very strong growth last year.
Overall, we remain cautious on the outlook, especially in France, and continue to focus on margin and cost initiatives to support our performance.