Papering over the cracks is getting harder for Kingfisher. The end of the housing market boom and lockdown boredom has removed the easy twin boosts to sales for the owner of B&Q, which this time last year became the third-ever British retailer to record a profit of more than £1 billion.
Now? Like-for-like sales slipped by just over 2 per cent last year, which together with higher energy and wage costs and an impairment against the value of some of its store estate, pushed down pre-tax profit more than a third to £611 million. Strip out the last item in that list and profit was still about a fifth lower at £758 million. Don’t expect a bounceback this year. Pressure on consumer spending and the
