Kingfisher poaches Carrefour top gun Thierry Garnier to fend off break-up

UNDERperforming DIY giant Kingfisher today poached a top French retail executive to speed up the transformation of a business some say is ripe for break-up.

Thierry Garnier, 53, will arrive from Carrefour, where he ran its Asian arm, replacing Véronique Laury, leaving one fewer female boss of a FTSE 100 company.

City analysts say while Laury mostly delivered on her plans to unify the business and invest in digital, these had yet to result in higher profits.

In the UK, trade arm Screwfix has done well, while B&Q has struggled. In France, the market has been tough and Kingfisher’s Castorama and Brico Depot brands are lately regarded as a disappointment by investors. Garnier’s pay has yet to be disclosed, but it is likely to be in line with Laury’s. She got an 11% rise to £1.8 million this year despite falling profits.

Chairman Andy Cosslett said Garnier “is a highly talented international retailer and proven business leader”, who has “led significant businesses through complex change programmes”.

He was also an adviser to Michel Barnier, the European Union’s chief negotiator on Brexit, in the 1990s.

Kingfisher is financially strong, with sales of towards £12 billion a year and profits of nearly £700 million. It has a property portfolio worth £3.5 billion and no debt, which makes it a plausible takeover target.

The shares have underperformed, down 30% this year. Today they were up 3% to 213p, which values the business at £4.5 billion. That’s down from 380p three years ago. The board is said to have rejected any talk of a break-up and wants Garnier to move quickly to further integrate product ranges across the business and beef up the digital arm, where home improvement businesses have been slow to act.

Garnier will relocate to the UK, starting his new job in the autumn. At Carrefour Asia he was responsible for 350 stores in China and Taiwan with 55,000 staff.

Laury said in March she was standing down, four years into a five-year plan.

Cosslett added: “Thierry stood out for the board from a strong list of candidates due to his recognised operational know-how at a multinational retail business, his delivery of long-term value creation, and his experience in driving leading-edge digital innovation, most recently in China.”