Screwfix tooling up for 60 new stores this year
Screwfix says it has 60 new stores in the pipeline ready to open by the end of the year.
The retailer’s parent company Kingfisher said that last year saw a record 82 store openings in the UK and Ireland for Screwfix, bringing its total number of stores to 872.
The group says it has a medium-term target to operate over 1,000 stores.
Kingfisher, which owns B&Q, is also targeting further expansion globally, having opened its first five B&Q stores in France last year and targeting a further 25 in 2023. B&Q also opened its first two Middle Eastern stores in 2022.
The group says it is looking to open more ‘compact’ format stores, with B&Q recently entering the convenience market.
“We believe that compact stores will play an increasingly crucial role in addressing the consumer need for both speed and convenience. Through compact store expansion, our ambition is to grow market share, optimise our overall store footprint, and to grow sales densities and store profitability”, Kingfisher said.
This comes despite the group seeing a drop in profits of over a third. In its financial results for the year ending January 31 2023, operating profit fell 36.7% against the previous year to £723m.
A slight drop in sales was attributed to strong comparatives the prior year which saw high demand for home improvement products, with retail profit falling 19.2% on a constant currency basis to £923m.