Kingfisher’s exiting chief executive Véronique Laury is struggling to sell its Russian and Iberian arms of the business before she steps down later this month.

Kingfisher said last November it would exit from Russia, Portugal and Spain to concentrate on markets in the UK, France and Poland.

In an ongoing effort to turn the struggling business around before she exits, Laury has struggled to offload the Russian and Iberian operations, a source close to the process told The Financial Times.

“It has proved a lot more tricky than they expected,” said one source. Another source blamed weak consumer spending in Europe for the lack of interest from private equity bidders.

The news comes ahead of its half-year results on Wednesday where no update on the sale is expected.

Kingfisher has three Brico Depot stores in Portugal, 28 in Spain and 20 Castorama units in Russia compared with 520 stores across the UK and France.

Laury is set to exit Kingfisher and will be replaced by former Carrefour boss Thierry Garnier, who will continue with Laury’s struggling ‘One Kingfisher’ strategy.

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