Home improvement retailer Kingfisher is parting company with chief executive Véronique Laury after it reported a 13% fall in annual profit.
Kingfisher is more than halfway through a five-year transformation plan designed to lift earnings.
The company, whose main businesses are B&Q and Screwfix in Ireland and the UK, and Castorama and Brico Depot in France and elsewhere, said the search for a successor had started and was supported by Laury.
Kingfisher, whose shares have fallen 30% over the last year, said Laury would continue with her responsibilities until a departure date had been confirmed.
Laury, 53, has been CEO since December 2014 and is one of only a small number of women in charge of top British companies.
The group has just entered the fourth year of a five-year programme to raise annual profit by £500m from 2021.
However, profits actually went backwards in its 2018-19 year and Kingfisher said today that separating out the £500m targeted profit improvement from the rest of the business no longer reflected how it is managed.
It is now targeting growth in group sales, gross margin, retail profit and return on capital "over the medium term". It forecast a flat gross margin in the 2019-20 year.
The home improvement market has been tough in Britain where Australia's Wesfarmers came unstuck after a failed investment in the Homebase chain.
Kingfisher said its underlying pretax profit fell 13% to £693m in the year to January 31 2019, reflecting weakness in Castorama France and losses in Russia and Romania.
"As we approach the completion of our main transformation work (Laury) feels unable to make the multi-year commitment that's required to tackle the next stage of our journey," Chairman Andy Cosslett told reporters.
"We’ve therefore agreed together that this is the year in which she will pass the baton to her successor," the chairman added.
Cosslett said the board had recently completed a "thorough review" of Kingfisher's strategy.
"I can confirm today that it has full support for what we’re doing," he said.
Laury's plan for the group, costing £800m over five years, involves unifying product ranges across brands, boosting e-commerce and seeking efficiency savings.
Kingfisher said the estimated benefits from the transformation after three years were in line with the 2016 plan.
However, it said these benefits have been offset by the external environment and underperforming parts of the business.
The group also said today it was exiting Screwfix in Germany with the closure of 15 stores and considering the closure of another 15 poorly performing stores across the business over the next two years.
