Home-improvements chain Kingfisher profits decline

Kingfisher, Europe's biggest home-improvements retailer, said on Wednesday that net profits fell by 19 percent to £259 million ($417 million, 324 million euros) in the first half owing to wet weather. Profit after tax slid in the six months to late July compared with earnings of £321 million in 2010/11, Kingfisher said in a results statement. Retail sales slipped 3.3 percent to £5.478 billion in the reporting period for the company that runs the B&Q home improvements chain in Britain as well as France's Castorama and Brico Depot stores. "This has been a tough first half with unprecedented wet weather throughout the key spring and summer seasons in northern Europe," Kingfisher chief executive Ian Cheshire said in the statement. "This affected footfall and demand for outdoor maintenance, gardening and leisure products, which normally account for a significant proportion of our first half sales." The group was also affected by changes to exchange rates.