Hardware Retailer B&Q to Close 60 Stores in The United Kingdom and Ireland.

According to a recent article in Supply Chain Digital, Kingfisher, Europe's biggest home improvements retailer, has today announced it will be closing 60 of its B&Q stores in the United Kingdom and Ireland, after pulling out of a takeover for French chain Mr Bricolage.

British group Kingfisher, which owns the chains B&Q and Screwfix in Britain as well as Castorama and Brico Depot in France, said it would close the stores over the next two years at a restructuring cost of £350 million. Neither the exact locations nor number of planned job losses were disclosed.

"Kingfisher has said for some time that B&Q UK & Ireland can adequately meet local customer needs from fewer stores and that some of the stores should be smaller." the group said, while revealing the departure of B&Q Chief Executive Kevin O'Byrne.

It was announced also that Kingfisher's annual profits had dropped 19 percent to £573 million.

In a statement, the company said: "The results for the year reflect a mixed picture across our markets with the UK market improving but continental Europe, particularly France, proving to be a more challenging environment."

You can read the fill article from Supply Chain Digital here.

Rhode Island Office

I have been with B2BGateway.Net www.b2bgateway.net for a little over 3 ½ years now. I started working in our European Office in Dublin, Ireland. Our EU office has since moved to Galway, Ireland and I have since moved back to Rhode Island. Our Rhode Island office is located in Wyoming, which is a small town in Southern Rhode Island. The town does have other places of business; a grocery store, three pharmacies, a few gas stations, hair salon and two gyms. But I think it is pretty safe to say we are the only Business to Business company in the area. Whenever I am out at lunch and someone happens to ask where I work, I let them know about our office “right down the street”. Most people are extremely interested to hear about what we do. When I first say we are software as a service company specializing in EDI, I lose them. But then I explain to them a real life scenario of B2BGateway.Net being part of the process of getting certain items into the local Stop & Shop or CVS, they are back and interested again. At B2BGateway.Net, we are helping making every day easier for someone somewhere. Like making sure CVS gets the ASN on time for a shipment arriving the next day at CVS Wyoming. I take great pride in knowing we helped make the process a little smoother and I also think the people of Wyoming, RI can take some pride in knowing this is all happening in their little town.
Riona