DIY giant Kingfisher has spoken at length in recent months about building an “engine” that will drive its future success.

But after it emerged that group trading director John Colley is quitting to return to former employer Majestic Wine, the City must be asking itself whether that engine is not only stalling but running out of gas completely.

Colley’s exit is the latest in a string of high-profile departures from the B&Q and Screwfix owner, leaving it with an enormous rebuilding job of its own to do.

John colley

John Colley is the latest senior figure to leave Kingfisher

Its group executive team has been decimated over the past year. Supply chain director Arja Taaveniku kicked off the exodus when she left last September. Finance boss Karen Witts resigned a month later to take on the same role at Compass.

Chief people officer Alastair Robertson stepped down earlier this year, around the same time that chief customer officer Pierre Woreczek was quietly ushered into an advisory role.

Group boss Véronique Laury stepped aside at the time of its full-year results in March, though she remains in the hot seat during a transitional phase ahead of new boss Thierry Garnier’s arrival. At the same time, it was revealed that chief transformation, digital and IT officer Steve Willett was also leaving the business.

Add Colley’s departure to that lengthy list, and the ‘One’ in Kingfisher’s stuttering transformation plan – One Kingfisher – takes on an added significance. Chief offer and sourcing officer Henri Solère is now the sole permanent member of the group executive team, alongside the outgoing Laury and interim finance boss John Wartig.

The evaporation of a talented senior leadership team that once populated its Paddington head office speaks volumes for the increasingly uncertain mood behind those closed doors.

Doubts persist in some quarters over the future of the One Kingfisher plan following three years of underperformance, despite the insistence of chair Andy Cosslett that Garnier will run with the strategy implemented back in 2016.

Eurosceptics

Anglo-French relations are also thought to have soured after internal politics surrounding Laury’s successor split the group down the middle.

The UK business favoured a British appointment and is understood to have pushed strongly for the arrival of former Direct Line supremo Paul Geddes. But their counterparts in Europe – where Kingfisher owns Castorama and Brico Dépôt – won the day. Garnier, the former boss of French grocer Carrefour’s Asia division, will take the helm later this year.

The Frenchman may now be wondering what on earth he is walking into. He has his work cut out to rebuild the executive team, get investors back onside and restore profitability.

“Sources have told Retail Week that lingering concerns over falling profitability and a failing plan have eroded confidence in Cosslett”

Kingfisher’s share price sat at 280p last August. It opened this morning at 193.75p – and could fall further next month when it unveils what are likely to be more subdued financial figures.

Pre-tax profits plummeted 52.8% to £322m in the year to January 31. At an underlying level, the bottom line fell 13% to £693m. In response, Kingfisher said it was scrapping its previously stated target of growing pre-tax profits to £500m by 2020.

Revenues in the first quarter of this year may have increased, but Castorama’s performance continues to drag on Kingfisher’s top and bottom lines. Sales at the chain slid 3.7% on a like-for-like basis in the three months to April 30 and were down 5.1% in total to £1bn. 

Business break-up?

Laury insisted in May that strategic progress was being made. But sources have told Retail Week that lingering concerns over falling profitability and a failing plan have eroded confidence in Cosslett, leaving him with plenty of questions to answer two years into his tenure. 

How has he allowed the group executive team to be ripped apart?

Why is he so wedded to a One Kingfisher plan that has borne very little fruit three-and-a-half years in?

Has he got the succession plan right by bringing in someone with no prior experience in DIY retail?

Is now the right time to break up the group and separate B&Q and Screwfix from the European business?

Whispers in the City suggest the latter could be the medium-term plan. After all, Garnier presided over Carrefour’s China business prior to its sale to Suning.com in June. Could he have been parachuted in to orchestrate a similar move at Kingfisher?

Restless investors could push for such a break-up – or Cosslett’s resignation – if signs of improvement remain few and far between.

Whatever the group ultimately looks like, Garnier will need to quickly set about firming up Kingfisher’s increasingly wobbly foundations if he is to revive its ailing fortunes.

Colley’s departure has only served to accentuate the huge scale of the task.