Home and DIY giant Kingfisher has reported soaring profits and sales in the last year, with chief executive Thierry Garnier confident of its “continued outperformance” of the market. 

For the year ended January 31, 2021, Kingfisher reported that adjusted pre-tax profits were up 44.4% to £786m, while sales ballooned 7.2% to £12.3bn. 

In the UK and Ireland, like-for-like sales at B&Q for the year finished 10.7% up. Screwfix reported a 6.6% increase in like-for-like sales for the period.  

The retailer reported that operating profit leapt to £916m, while gross profits jumped 7.5% to more than £4.5bn for the period. 

Kingfisher said ecommerce sales across the group were up 158% for the period and now accounted for 18% of total group sales. 

Free cash flow for the period was up to £938m, while net debt to EBITDA was down to 0.9 times at year-end. 

Kingfisher said it had made “good progress” on its ‘Powered by Kingfisher’ strategy, first unveiled last summer.

It said the clear financial priorities for the group this financial year would be: prioritising top-line growth ahead of the market; growing adjusted pre-tax profits; and continuing to generate strong free cash flow. 

While Kingfisher said it had begun the new financial year trading strongly, it did warn of ongoing uncertainty as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, growing cases in continental Europe and the impact of strong comparables in the second half of the year. 

Garnier said: “We rolled out our Powered by Kingfisher strategy without delay and even accelerated in many areas.

“Our distinct retail banners are now empowered and much more agile, which enabled them to react quickly in what was a volatile situation last year, supported by the scale, strength and expertise of the Kingfisher Group.”

He added: “Current trading remains positive and, while visibility is limited for the year as a whole, we are confident of continued outperformance of our wider markets.

“The Covid crisis has established new longer-term trends that are clearly supportive for our industry – including more working from home, the renewed importance of the home as a ‘hub’ and the development of a new generation of DIYers – and we expect these to endure.

“With our strategic progress, we are well positioned to capitalise on these new and positive market trends.”

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