Sir Ian Cheshire is preparing to step down as boss of Kingfisher, the owner of DIY chains B&Q and Screwfix, but he is signing off on a low; the retailer has posted an 11.8% decline in third quarter profit.
Europe's biggest home improvement retailer made a retail profit of £225m in the 13 weeks to 1 November, down from £271m made in the same time last year. Total sales fell 3.6% to £2.82 billion.
Kingfisher blamed the disappointing figures on "particularly difficult" trading conditions in France and of adverse foreign exchange movements when translating overseas profits into sterling.
However, in the UK things were not as bad; Kingfisher's UK businesses reported a 2.6% increase in like-for-like sales.
Sir Ian steps down in December. He is due to be replaced by Veronique Laury, currently the chief executive of Castorama France.
Kingfisher said it remained cautious on the outlook.
