Kingfisher, the biggest home-improvements retailer in Europe, said today that full-year net profit slid by 19% amid consumer uncertainty and that it was cutting its final dividend by half.
Net profits slid to £274m sterling in the year to February 2, compared with earnings of £337m in 2006/07.
Kingfisher, which owns the B&Q chain and the Castorama and Brico Depot stores in France, added that annual sales revenue climbed 8% to £9.36 billion.
'The last year has been challenging for international retailers with increased global economic uncertainty impacting consumer confidence, particularly in the UK,' Kingfisher chairman Peter Jackson said.
Kingfisher said it was slashing its final quarterly dividend by 50% to 3.4 pence, making a total dividend for the year of 7.25 pence.
'No business can fully shield itself from economic cycles and given the current state of the financial markets, most commentators are expecting the short-term outlook to worsen before it improves,' Kingfisher's CEO Cheshire said.
'Against this background, our priorities remain on improving cash margin and controlling costs,' he added.
