DIY giant B&Q is well and truly mired in the retail bloodbath after seeing profits dip by 30 per cent as fewer people buy at its superstores and it is hit by Brexit.
The chain's owner Kingfisher saw half-year profits tumble after being hit by woes in its French arm and amid consumer belt-tightening in the UK.
Shares in the retailer fell as much as eight per cent after it posted a 30 per cent fall in statutory pre-tax profit to £281million for the six months to July 31, with profits down 14.8 per cent on an underlying basis at £375million.
B&Q has a huge store at Crownhill, in Plymouth, and also has outlets in St Austell, Exeter, Torquay and Newton Abbot.
Sales fell 2.5 per cent on a like-for-like basis across its DIY chain in the UK and Ireland after a mixed performance, impacted by poor weather at the start of 2018, but then boosted by the heatwave in the final quarter.
Comparable sales of weather-related ranges jumped by 4.9 per cent, while sales of other products – including more big-ticket items in its showroom – dropped 5.4 per cent.
In the UK, the Kingfisher group said there was evidence of consumer "belt-tightening", while Brexit uncertainty was also holding back the property market, which has a knock-on effect on demand for DIY products.
The retailer has blamed many factors including the rise of a generation who can't tell the difference between a Pozidriv screwdriver and a rawlplug.
Focus DIY, once the largest home improvement chain in the UK, was wound up in 2011 with the closure of more than 100 outlets.
However, another Kingfisher chain, Screwfix, which has a large outlet in Plymouth and others across Devon and Cornwall, saw like-for-like sales rise 4.5 per cent in the first half of 2018.
For Kingfisher's overall UK and Ireland business, retail profits edged 1.2 per cent higher to £281million.
But it was a 31per cent tumble in constant currency profits to £122million at its French arm that weighed on wider group profits in the first half.
Sales at another brand, Castorama, slumped 5.8 per cent and were 1.7 per cent lower at Brico Depot.
Kingfisher said the profits slump came after earnings dropped by nearly a third in its French arm, while its bottom line was also knocked by costs of its ongoing revamp, range overhauls and higher labour costs.
Kingfisher chief executive Veronique Laury insisted the group was making "good progress" having reached the halfway point in its five-year strategy overhaul.
She said: "Transformation on this scale is tough, and there are challenges that we're working through.
"There is still much to do to improve our performance in France and to remove inefficiencies within the business as we continue to transform at pace."
She said the difficult retail trading conditions are "making our task more difficult than expected".
Neil Wilson, chief market analyst at Markets.com, said investors remained unconvinced by Kingfisher's revamp.
He said: "It's still the same old story at Kingfisher with little sign that the turnaround is really working.
"With talk of activist investors circling, the French operation is one that could certainly be earmarked for hiving off, as previously argued on several occasions in the past."
B&Q's turnaround saw it shut 65 shops and slash around 3,000 jobs in the UK and Ireland over the past two-and-a-half years.
It has also been shaking up its ranges and improving its online offering, while the group recently announced it was investing £100million as part of plans to lower everyday prices.
Kingfisher has nearly 24,700 staff in the UK and Ireland and more than 63,900 overall, with operations also across markets including Poland, Russia, Romania and Iberia.
It has 296 B&Q stores and 598 Screwfix outlets in the UK and Ireland.