B&Q Lite

We’re all waiting with bated breath for the budget, but while we do there’s plenty going on today. Sainsbury’s has moved to lock in Darren Shapland, who has been an excellent FD for the company and was clearly being targeted by M&S to replace Ian Dyson. Shapland is a CEO of the future and his promotion to business development director will be the next stepping stone on that road.

Also interesting to see Kingfisher CEO Ian Cheshire reveal plans to open smaller stores in city centre locations. It’s a move which makes a lot of sense. My local B&Q in West Norwood is a 1970s relic - on the high street, over two small floors, with a small car park on the roof which you take your life in your hands to drive up to. Yet it works, because there isn’t a retail park branch for miles and most people in the area either don’t run a car or don’t need to use one for the small convenience purchases of tools, lightbulbs or paint which they tend to make there.

I haven’t seen Kingfisher’s city centre stores on the continent but Home Depot has made stores work in Manhattan and if they can make it there (if you pardon the pun) with the sort of rents that must be charged, I’m sure city centre B&Qs can here. There’s still a lot of the convenience DIY market in the hands of in-town independents which B&Q could eat into, while at the same time creating an attractive homewares offer with a softer edge than its big out of town sheds.