Screwfix is a fast-growing DIY retailer that targets trade professionals and serious DIYers with a highly regarded multichannel operation.
Originally founded as a mail order operation in the 1970s, the business now trades from approaching 900 stores across the UK and Ireland, and delivers to more than 20 countries from its European website. Some stores are sub-branded Electrofix and Plumbfix to target electricians and plumbers.
Its current focus is on further strengthening its multichannel operation, mobile, convenience and continually making things easier for the customer.
Screwfix is part of Kingfisher, one of world’s leading home improvement retailers. It operates approaching 1,600 DIY stores across Europe, the main fascia being B&Q.
While a fledgling Screwfix store network in Germany has been shuttered, expansion into core Kingfisher markets is still on the cards going forward. Screwfix launched online in France in 2021 and opened its first five stores in the market in FY2022, while Poland and Iberia are also under consideration for potential market entry.
Sales at Screwfix have grown strongly in recent years due to the ongoing expansion of the store network and a speedy click-and-collect service. Against strong comparatives during the pandemic, sales rose by just 1.5% to £2,345.4m in the year to end-January 2023 (FY2022), while both like-for-like and online sales turned negative. Sales remained robustly ahead on a 3-year basis, however, with like-for-like sales up 14.2% on this basis and ecommerce sales up 137%.
With Kingfisher profits under serious pressure for several years and group sales also slipping in FY2019, CEO Thierry Garnier embarked on a new strategy in a bid to turn things around at group level.
His Powered by Kingfisher plan consists of eight strategic pillars including initial priorities to ‘focus and fix’ challenges such as managing the impact of Covid, alongside more long-term aims such as building a mobile-first, service-orientated customer experience, testing new store concepts and increasing its own-brand offering.
Innovation rating: 4
