Kingfisher, which owns B&Q, has blamed the wettest summer on record in the UK and northern Europe for a double-digit fall in profits at the global DIY group.
It said the torrential rain had wiped more than £30m off its half-year profits and forced it to discount “aggressively” to clear seasonal products such as plants, barbecues, hosepipes and greenhouses, after sales tumbled during the soggy weather.
Chief executive Ian Cheshire said that sales of plants were down 20% because of the wet summer.
At B&Q UK and Ireland profits fell by 24.1% to £125 million over the 26 weeks to July 28.
The chain said weekly footfall to its stores had been down by an average of 1.2 million in its peak trading months of May and June, and this had a knock-on effect on other categories, as absent customers did not add other non-seasonal products to their shopping baskets.
More positively, the torrential rain led to sales of lawn mowers powering ahead by 13%, as grass thrived in the warm wet conditions, while sales of water butts jumped by 60% and slug pellets were up by 33%.
Kingfisher, the world’s third-largest DIY group with 988 stores in eight countries, posted a 15.5% fall in profits to £371 million over the half year. In France, where Kingfisher operates the Brico Depot and Castorama chains, sales were actually higher in the south but down in the north, reflecting the country’s weather divide.
In addition to the wet weather impact, Kingfisher took a £25 million currency hit from the pound strengthening against the euro and Polish zloty.
Kingfisher’s total sales slipped by 3.3% to £5.48 billion, including a fall in revenues in China, but it was buoyed by growth in Poland, Russia, Spain and Turkey.
The group lifted its interim dividend by 25.1% to 3.09p a share.
