B&Q is to close 60 stores in UK and Ireland, parent company Kingfisher announced this week. It says fewer, and in some cases smaller, stores are sufficient to meet market needs.

There is a cryptic reference in Kingfisher’s statement to future plans for “unified garden and bathroom businesses across Europe, covering the full design process from customers’ needs to customers’ homes”. This would suggest that Kingfisher predicts that the garden and bathroom categories will be the best drivers of growth in the next few years, but it has not revealed how the plans will be implemented in existing stores.

Meanwhile, Kingfisher’s thriving Screwfix network is to expand again, with 60 new stores planned this year. The division has a substantial gardening offer across tools, machinery, outdoor living and gardening equipment.

The 60 closures represent 15% of the group’s 360 B&Q stores, with shutdowns at Southampton, Dundee, Baums Lane at Mansfield, Stechford in Birmingham, Barnsley and Hyde in Greater Manchester already announced.

Kingfisher’s new CEO Véronique Laury said that although she believed Kingfisher had further further scope to grow in a sustainable way, “it is clear to me that we need to organise ourselves very differently to unlock our potential.”

B&Q’s UK and Ireland CEO Kevin O'Byrne is to leave the company in May, Kingfisher said.