B&Q owner Kingfisher's boss Véronique Laury to leave as profits fall

Struggling DIY chain Kingfisher is ousting chief executive Véronique Laury three years into a five-year turnaround plan widely regarded as a failure.

Laury, one of the few female bosses of a FTSE 100 company, paid the price for plunging profits and poor returns across the group apart from at the UK’s Screwfix arm, which caters for the building trade. Kingfisher is best known for B&Q, which has struggled to cope with online rivals and declining interest in DIY from millennials.

Today Kingfisher reported a 13% fall in profits to £693 million, a sign of Laury’s failure to revive the French chain Castorama.

She will stay until a replacement is found but can expect compensation of around £1.5 million, her pay last year. The shares are down by a quarter during her reign and kept falling today, down 3% at 237p.

A shake-out sees chief financial officer Karen Witts depart to join Compass. She will be replaced temporarily by former Fitness First executive John Wartig, though he won’t join the board. Steve Willett, its digital chief, is retiring after 20 years.

Laury’s strategy was dubbed “One Kingfisher”. A break-up of the company now appears a strong possibility. It has already quit Russia, Spain and Portugal. There was an £111 million cost for store closures, and sales were flat at £11.7 billion.

Julie Palmer at Begbies Traynor said the results gave “little hope to investors”, pointing to “tumultuous market conditions” and civil unrest in France.

She said: “The group will now be facing growing pressure to hold on to its prized assets, B&Q and Screwfix, which have seen vultures circling for some time.”

Investec’s Kate Calvert said: “The business will now be in strategic limbo and the new CEO will inherit a business where it is hard to identify the longer term growth story.”

Kingfisher’s chairman Andy Cosslett said: “We are now moving into a new phase where we can extract more of the benefits resulting from the hard work that has been put in and it is therefore timely that we commence a succession process.”

Laury said: “As the transformation approaches its final year, I believe it is right for someone else to lead the next phase of the One Kingfisher journey.”

Her departure leaves just five female FTSE 100 CEOs until Penny James joins as Direct Line chief in May.