A statement from owner Kingfisher stated that B&Q UK & Ireland can “adequately meet local customer needs from fewer stores and that some of the stores should be smaller".
Southampton, Dundee, Baums Lane in Mansfield, Station Road in Stechford in Birmingham, Hyde in Greater Manchester, and Barnsley are among the 360 stores due to close.
Despite theses closures, Kingfisher plans to open 60 Screwfix stores this year. The firm said the B&Q closures will be “neutralised” by the Screwfix openings. It said this would create 900 new jobs and that there were plans to redeploy staff to other parts of the business.
Recently appointed chief executive of Kingfisher Veronique Laury has said the group will be undergoing a major overhaul to improve efficiency and pass on cost savings that would enable it to cut prices for shoppers and improve service.
She told the Guardian newspaper: “This is not about reducing our scale within the UK, it’s about renewing. I’m not one of those who believes home improvement is dead in the UK. I think it’s alive for millions of people out there.”
B&Q has said that top executives’ roles will evolve to focus on the entire Kingfisher brand.
Laury told BBC News that the group could achieve "significant benefits" from unifying the group as the "customers needs are already largely the same” with the markets it serves being "fundamentally more similar than different".
