Kingfisher plc

Today B&Q is celebrating the opening of a brand new B&Q Local store in Brighton! 🎉   The Brighton store is the first B&Q Local store to open outside of London. B&Q Local is a compact and convenient high-street format, offering customers B&Q’s wide range of home improvement products and services closer to home. The store will also offer rapid on-demand delivery to local customers through B&Q's new partnership with Deliveroo when the service launches in store later in the month.   The opening was attended by Brighton Gay Men’s Choir, Brighton & Hove City Council ward councillor Andrei Czolak and local artist Dave Pop Art, who created an eye-catching window mural display for the new store 👏🏻

🎥  The next episode in our Sustainability Series features Gin Tidridge, Sustainability Manager, who takes us through how we are working to address the impacts our products make on the environment through our Sustainable Home Product programme.   Our Sustainability Series is a selection of bite-sized interviews hosted by our Investor Relations manager and ESG investor engagement lead Nathan Cao, CFA as he meets with sustainability experts from around the business, to provide viewers with greater insight into our Responsible Business agenda and key focus areas. To watch the full interview, click the link in the comments 👇

🛠️ New research published by B&Q and TradePoint UK today shines a light on a concerning gender divide among school leavers looking to enter the trade industry. Over half of 16–18-year-old girls surveyed believed boys receive more opportunities to enter the sector than they do. To create a more equitable future and support more young women to pursue fantastic trade careers, B&Q has pledged £1 million to fund trade apprenticeships and is working with Transfer to Transform – their apprenticeship and skills partners – to encourage and promote these among girls and women. Find out more about the research through the link in the comments below 👇

🎥 Continuing our 'Powered by our People' colleague interview series, we'd like to introduce Eloise Hopes, Sustainability Manager in our Responsible Business team.   Eloise helped to set up our Net Zero Logistics Forum, which brings together logistics colleagues across our banners to support their decarbonisation journey.    Watch below to find out more 👇

Our Group AI Director Mohsen Ghasempour, Ph.D. spoke to Retail Gazette magazine recently about our use of AI to improve both the customer and colleague experience. Mohsen has built an industry-leading team of 30 experts, who are already delivering strong results in areas such as product personalisation and recommendation, supply chain transparency and demand forecasting, and generative AI through the recent launch of our ‘Hello Casto’ digital virtual assistant. 🛒 Click the link in the comments to read the article 👇

An exciting update to the B&Q app with improved navigation, new intuitive features such as a wish-list and improved accessibility. The app gives customers access to over 1.2 million products from their mobile.   The app is also now more energy efficient by using less power without affecting user experience! Download today from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store 📱

🎥 Introducing our new Sustainability Series - a selection of bite-sized interviews hosted by our Investor Relations manager and ESG investor engagement lead Nathan Cao, CFA as he meets with sustainability experts from around the business, to provide viewers with greater insight into our Responsible Business agenda and key focus areas.   Our first episode features Karl Arpon, ESG Engagement Manager, who manages Kingfisher’s ESG ratings submissions. To watch the full interview click the link within the comments 🌍👇

The B&Q annual Gardener of the Year competition has crowned its winners! 👏 💐   The panel of expert judges and influencers crowned Odette and Rob from Bournemouth the overall winners for impressing them with how they transformed their garden from a simple and unimaginative area into a quirky and fun entertaining space – full of personal touches and details inspired by their travels and family and friends.   Click the link in the comments to find out about the runners up and the B&Q Community Garden of the Year 👇

Exciting news from B&Q which has today announced a new partnership with Deliveroo, bringing Londoners delivery of over 600 DIY products from their nearest B&Q Local store in as little as 25 minutes! ⏱️ ⚡   Across Kingfisher, we are accelerating e-commerce by bringing our customers speed and choice, harnessing the strength of our store network.   Read more about B&Q’s new partnership to test on-demand delivery via the link in the comments below 👇

It was great to hear Sundar Pichai, Google and Alphabet Inc. CEO, reference Kingfisher's use of AI on Alphabet's earnings call yesterday: “Vertex helps customers such as Deutsche Bank, Kingfisher and the U.S. Air Force build powerful AI agents.”   Last year we launched Hello Casto, the first AI-powered assistant in the home improvement sector - harnessing the power of generative AI to support customers at Castorama with their DIY projects. We have lots of exciting AI initiatives in development, so watch this space! 👀