B&Q

This weekend, colleagues from across the UK came together and marched in our home city for Southampton Pride. Taking to the streets of Southampton, we celebrated our colleagues and communities, bringing to life our inclusive culture to really show what #TogetherWeCan means to us all. Want to find out more about what it means to belong at B&Q? https://bit.ly/4cHWnHr

NEW STORE: We're excited to announce that we have opened our first B&Q Local store outside of London today in Brighton, making this the 11th B&Q Local store in our portfolio. B&Q Local Brighton is a new smaller high street format providing customers with speed, convenience, and access to B&Q’s wider offer of products and services but closer to home. To celebrate the opening, store manager Connor Sime was joined by local choir Brighton Gay Men’s Choir, local artist Dave Pop Art who designed a bright and colourful store window mural and Brighton and Hove ward councillor Andrei Czolak. The new compact 4,000 sq. ft store will offer 3,500 products, available either in store for immediate pick-up or next day click and collect, as well as access to over 30,000 additional home improvement products for home delivery.  Customers can access to the full range through home delivery and click and collect. The B&Q Local sub-banner has now been rolled out across 11 high street locations, with plans to open more. The Local concept is a different offering to the larger stores traditionally associated with B&Q and has clear ‘Local’ branding to differentiate. The smaller format gives us the opportunity to get closer to our customers and adapt to changing consumer demand for speed and convenience. As well as products, customers can access services such as paint mixing, kitchen and bathroom design, Click & Collect, instore ordering, key cutting and WEE recycling closer to home. The new store is located at 143 North Street, BN1 1RE, Connor and the team look forward to welcoming the Brighton residents to the store.

We're going for gold! We're incredibly proud of our Armed Forces Community and all they have achieved in supporting colleagues who've served, are serving or part of a forces family. Hear from John Green, one of Unit Managers, about what winning the Armed Forces Covenant Gold Employer Status means to him. Find out more about what we offer https://bit.ly/3AeNxDl #TogetherWeCan #GoldERS24

We are proud to announce that we have received the Defence Relationship Management (DRM) Employer Recognition scheme Gold Award for our commitment to supporting ex-armed forces veterans, Reservists, Cadet Forces Adult Volunteers (CFAV) and their families #GoldERS24 #BandQ #Belonging

Today, we’ve published new research highlighting the gender barrier for female school leavers looking to enter the Trade industry. Ahead of GCSE and A-Level result days, our data found that half of girls leaving school believe that boys receive more opportunities to enter the sector that they do. Three-quarters of surveyed girls aged between 16-18 say they’re unaware of any female tradespeople, highlighting a severe lack of role models in the industry. Only 2% of tradespeople are women, which needs to increase. We have pledged £1 million to fund trade apprenticeships and are working with Transfer to Transform – our apprenticeship and skills partners – to encourage and help promote this among girls and women. 

Work that works for you. That’s us. We’re champions of flexible working, whether it’s reducing your hours, fixed shift patterns or term-time only, we help you work smarter. Don’t just take it from us, hear it from Digital Trade Optimisation Lead Jess Gillan about her recent experiences in finding the right balance.   Find out more about what we offer https://bit.ly/3AeNxDl #TogetherWeCan

We’re continuing to enhance the shopping experience of our customers with the recent update to the B&Q app, which offers our customers access to over 1.2 million products from their mobile – our largest and fastest growing channel. We've streamlined the shopping journey with improved navigation and intuitive features such as wish-list and save for later and have ensured it's accessible for all with bigger buttons, improved colour contracting, and light and dark mode. Built on the latest technology, the app is more energy efficient by using less power without affecting user experience. You can download the app for iOS or Android via the Apple app store and the Google Play store. 

To celebrate the opening of our new B&Q Local store in Brighton on 23 August, colleagues from the new store offered support to The Young Peoples Centre (YPC), part of charity Impact Initiatives, with a special community makeover.   The team, worked alongside the Impact Initiatives team to refresh and revamp its outdoor courtyard garden area. The day was part of B&Q’s wider Community Days programme, where volunteers from B&Q stores support the local community by improving a community space to help make a positive difference across the communities B&Q operates in.   Store Manager Connor Sime said: “At B&Q we are always looking for ways in which we can make a positive difference to the communities we operate in, so my colleagues and I were really proud to mark the opening of our new store by working with the Impact Initiatives team to refresh the outdoor courtyard garden, which is a vital part of the space for the young people the charity supports. As part of the run up to the store opening, we also partnered with local Brighton street artist Dave Pop Art to create an eye-catching window mural display for the new store. Dave Pop Art is well-known in the local area for his bright and colourful street art throughout Brighton city centre and created a seaside inspired piece for the new store windows.   We look forward to welcoming the Brighton community to our new B&Q Local store in North Street on 23 August and helping them with all their DIY projects. #BandQ #easier #homeimprovement #DIY #Brighton

Delivering DIY products on demand in London - we’ve partnered with Deliveroo to offer a new, on-demand delivery service of over 600 home improvement products from nine of our B&Q Local stores in London. Starting later this month, our London-based customers will be able to order interior and outdoor paint, decorating, painting tools, plumbing, electricals, bathroom essentials, as well as tools and hardware, at the touch of a button from the nine B&Q Local stores. Our partnership with Deliveroo taps into the increasing demand from consumers for speed and convenience when it comes to buying DIY products. It gives customers more choice of when and how their B&Q purchases are delivered, whether they’re tackling an emergency job that needs a quick fix or need additional tools halfway through a project. With the new service, orders will be delivered from the B&Q Local store to home in as little as 25 minutes. Offering an on-demand, fast delivery service in partnership with Deliveroo, helps us to reach a new target customer base and serve new shopping missions. The nine B&Q Local stores involved are at Camden, Harrow, Palmers Green, Streatham, Sutton, Tooting, Wandsworth, Wood Green and Staines-Upon-Thames. #BandQ #easier #homeimprovement #DIY

We’re delighted to share the news that the Newcastle West End Food Bank garden has been chosen as this year’s winner of the B&Q Community Garden of the Year. Now in its fourth year, our B&Q Community Garden of the Year competition celebrates an outdoor space which has been created by the community with the aim of improving the life and wellbeing of those in the surrounding area. Nominated by volunteer gardener Jane Wanless and other volunteers, the Newcastle Foodbank garden wins a £2,500 B&Q gift card to support their work further. Jane Wanless and the team of volunteers have been recognised for turning a piece of derelict ground into a garden that provides fresh produce for Newcastle Foodbank’s clients and is a welcoming space for clients wishing to get involved in gardening. Run solely by volunteers, the garden has grown from small beginnings of just six raised beds. It now includes a greenhouse, orchard, and soft fruit area, as well as additional beds and trugs. The volunteers use organic gardening methods as well as succession planting to help maximise crop production. Peelings from the foodbank kitchen are recycled in compost bins and water butts collect rainwater for the crops. Taking feedback from kitchen volunteers and clients means that as well as growing more “traditional” vegetables such as onions and potatoes, the team of volunteers have added new crops, such as pak choi, to the garden. This year’s competition judges were B&Q Head of Outdoor, Mairi Devlin and award-winning garden designers, Matthew Childs and Humaira Ikram. Here’s what Mairi Devlin had to say about the win: “Congratulations to Jane and the volunteers at The Newcastle Foodbank garden! There are so many reasons why we judges chose your garden as this year’s B&Q Community Garden of the Year. We were really impressed by how well the garden is managed by the team of dedicated volunteers, and how six years ago they created it on derelict ground. The garden has such a strong purpose to produce fresh food for the foodbank clients; a model that the judges felt would be great to see replicated elsewhere. It’s also a lovely space for the foodbank clients to enjoy and to connect with nature. We’re delighted to be able to support Jane and the other volunteers with developing the garden further!” We’ve also announced that Bournemouth gardening enthusiasts, Odette and Rob Warmley, are the winners of this year's B&Q Gardener of the Year competition. They won their category - Best garden for entertainment – and were then selected by the judges from all the category winners as the 2024 B&Q Gardener of the Year. The three runners up who each won their categories are Paula Phillips Davies from Carmarthenshire for the Most Sustainable Garden, AnnMarie Swift from Walsall for the Best Garden for Planting, and Amanda Gomersall from Chandlers Ford for the Best Use of a Small Space. Well done to everyone who entered and to this year’s winners! #GOTY #CGOTY #BandQ