UK-based Kingfisher has raised its full-year 2026/2027 (FY26/27) guidance after statutory post-tax profit climbed 22.6% to £290m ($385.7m) for the six months to 31 July 2026.
The London-listed home improvement retailer, which owns B&Q, Screwfix, Castorama and Brico Dépôt, said statutory sales increased 0.8% to £6.86bn.
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
Statutory pre-tax profit was £400m, up 18.4%, while adjusted pre-tax profit increased 9.9% year-on-year to £404m. Operating profit rose 17.6% to £449m.
Gross margin expanded by 70 basis points to 38.4%.
The company said this reflected buying and sourcing scale, expansion in marketplace and retail media, and favourable exchange rates.
These factors were partly offset by higher freight costs and a greater share of trade sales.
The first-half results also included a one-off £14m UK business rates refund. Excluding this item, adjusted pre-tax profit growth was 6.1%.
Adjusted basic earnings per share increased 16.1% to 17.8p, which the company said was due to profit growth and its ongoing share buyback programme.
By region, UK and Ireland retail profit rose 5% to £361m. In France, retail profit increased 2.9% to £74m, while Poland posted retail profit growth of 17.4% to £60m.
During the period, Kingfisher opened nine new stores, taking its total estate to 1,700 stores.
It plans to open 30 new stores over the full year.
For FY26/27, the company now expects adjusted pre-tax profit of £595m-£635m, compared with its earlier guidance of £565m-£625m.
It also raised free cash flow guidance to £480m-£520m from £450m-£510m.
Kingfisher CEO Thierry Garnier said: “We are building a stronger, more resilient Kingfisher, with our strategic priorities creating new growth opportunities and strong financial discipline supporting performance across the business.
“While the consumer environment remains mixed, our consistent delivery, strategic progress and opportunities ahead give us the confidence to upgrade our guidance.”
