Kingfisher (Castorama, Brico Dépôt) sees its profit rebound despite a declining French market

The owner of the French retail chains Castorama and Brico Dépôt recorded a net profit of 245 million pounds (283,5 million euros) in the financial year ending in January, jumping 32,7% year-on-year.

To assess its true commercial performance, management highlights the adjusted profit (before tax), which increased by 13%. This calculation excludes from the previous year's comparison base an exceptional property tax refund of £33 million (€38,2 million) received in the United Kingdom.

Overall revenue increased slightly (+1,3%) to reach £12,9 billion (€14,98 billion), driven by the performance of its British brands, a strong increase in sales to professionals and online sales.

"Kingfisher had a good year," said Thierry Garnier, its CEO, during an online press briefing. "We gained significant market share."

For the group, which has operations in the UK, Ireland, Poland, and Spain, France remains a challenging market. Sales at its French subsidiaries declined by 2,2% on a like-for-like basis, reaching £3,86 billion (€4,47 billion).

This decline is part of a French market penalized in particular by savings rates which remain high among consumers and are down by about 3%, analyzes Kingfisher.

Kingfisher also had to pay the surcharge on the profits of large companies in 2025 in France, without wanting to specify the amount.

Thierry Garnier said he was "particularly pleased with Castorama's results" during a year of "major transformation," with "10% of stores being renovated or restructured." Approximately 25% of the network (24 stores) has already been optimized through downsizing, modernization, or conversion to franchising.

The CEO emphasized the "two strategic priorities": sales to professionals (+23%) and e-commerce (+20%) - excluding the Screwfix brand from the calculation, which is naturally oriented towards these two segments.

Artificial intelligence is another growth factor and Thierry Garnier sees Kingfisher as a pioneer in the home improvement sector: "today many distributors announce that they have created their own AI agent, we did that already in 2023 (with Hello Casto, editor's note), we were the first".

Although he also works with Google to improve his ranking on the Gemini tool, the Kingfisher boss assures that AI has "no impact on employment".