The new boss of B&Q owner Kingfisher has warned there is "much to do" to turn around the group's fortunes after sales slid once more in the third quarter.
Chief executive Thierry Garnier, who took over eight weeks ago from Veronique Laury, said trading had been "disappointing", with B&Q's UK and Ireland like-for-like sales down 3.4% in the quarter to October 31. Sales in France also remained under pressure, falling 6.1%, with a 5.2% drop for its other international operations.
The group also cautioned trading would remain tough for the final quarter across all its operations. Garnier said: "It is clear that there is much to do to improve our performance.Kingfisher's trading during the third quarter was disappointing."
He added: "We are suffering from organisational complexity, and we are trying to do too much at once with multiple large-scale initiatives running in parallel. Altogether, this has brought disruption to sales and has distracted the business from focusing on customers."
