The FTSE 100’s depressingly small group of female chief executives looks set to decline by one: B&Q owner Kingfisher has announced the departure of Veronique Laury alongside its full-year results.
There was a certain inevitably about this “mutual decision” given the state of the company.
As well as announcing a 13 per cent fall in last year’s underlying earnings, it ditched a pledge to produce an additional £500m of extra profit from the “One Kingfisher” turnaround plan, which always looked like a stretch.
The company’s troubled French arm, Castorama, is still wilting. B&Q isn’t doing well either, leaving the group even more dependent on Screwfix, the trade arm that’s been propping things up.
We are told the “engine” that will spark the group into life is now nearly in place. It’s going to have to go some to instil any confidence that this is a business heading in the right direction.
Chair Andy Cosslett paid gushing tribute to “Vero”, who is just the most senior of a string of top executives walking out of what has become a rapidly revolving door at the entrance of the executive suite.
Another, Steve Willett, the chief transformation and digital officer, announced his departure alongside that of Laury. She at least looks set to be with the business for some time to come because no date has been set for her exit and she says she’s going to stick around until there’s a replacement.
Meanwhile the calls for a change in strategy to go with changes in personnel are only going to grow louder, regardless of Cosslett’s insistence that the change at the top “won’t slow us down or deflate us from our strategy”.
Laury going won’t buy off Kingfisher’s critics, many of whom have been calling for a breakup. It will give added ammunition to the critics of the FTSE 100’s hiring practices.
Laury may have disappointed her investors, but that doesn’t make her unique in an index that already has more Davids or Daves (seven) than it has women at the top. When she’s gone there will be just five.
We keep being told that executive talent is terribly rare. That being the case, you’d think recruitment committees would take a harder look at the 50 per cent of the population that doesn’t possess a Y chromosome. The current situation is inexcusable.
But perhaps Cosslett will surprise us and appoint the second woman in a row, bringing the number back up to six.
He might need to get creative because given the state of the business it’s not as if he’ll have a queue of Daves beating down his door.
