The retailer is pleased with the performance of the first Trade Depot outlet, which opened in Southampton in October, and is searching for sites to gain scale quickly.
Kingfisher opened a second Trade Depot store at a former B&Q site in Basingstoke last week and it is understood that a third will open in Oxford later this year.
Kingfisher is said to have already lined up a number of the 50 sites and is focusing on the Southwest initially.
However, the group would not reveal any target locations and a spokesman stressed that it was still early days. 'The two stores we have look good, but it is still in trial, not roll-out, phase,' the spokesman said.
The retailer is understood to want at least 10 stores a year of between 22,000 sq ft and 38,000 sq ft (2,045 sq m and 3,530 sq m).
A rolling recruitment programme is under way to find senior store managers, who will set prices locally and have full profit and loss accountability. The expansion is expected to create 1,300 jobs.
Kingfisher aims to take a chunk of the UK's£50 billion trade and builders' merchant market with Trade Depot, which mirrors the retailer's Brico Depot chain in France.
Kingfisher's spokesman added: 'The format is based loosely on Brico in France. There are fewer lines, at 8,000, but we have borrowed some display techniques.'
Trade Depot has also drafted in Brico senior buyer Fabien Perez to bring business practices from the successful French counterpart.
Trade Depot is competing against groups such as Travis Perkins and Saint-Gobain, owner of Jewson, selling construction materials, plumbing products and joinery.
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