Company name: Kingfisher
Website: www.kingfisher.com
Address: 3 Sheldon Square, Paddington, London, W2 6PX
Number of employees:80,000
Contact details: Mhairi.Buckley@kingfisher.com
Company summary 
Kingfisher plc is Europe's largest home improvement retail group and the third largest in the world, with over 1,000 stores in eight countries in Europe and Asia, and sales of nearly £11bn. Its main retail brands are B&Q, Castorama, Brico Depot and Screwfix. Kingfisher has a 50% joint-venture business in Turkey with Koc Group, and a 21% interest in, and strategic alliance with, Hornbach, Germany's leading large format DIY retailer.
Our strategy and purpose
Launched in March 2012, 'Creating the Leader' is the current phase of our growth plan. It focuses on a number of self-help initiatives to drive sales, margin and cost productivity across the group under the four strategic pillars of making home improvement easier for our customers, developing a portfolio of common own brands, expansion and developing a One Team culture. We help millions of people each week to improve their homes. As a leading international retailer we have the scale and capability to help our customers create better homes and better lives.
Talent development
We want to build on our standing in Europe and be recognised as a world-class retailer, so it's important that we retain our employees, as well as recruit new talent. From the shop floor to head office, we invest in the training and development of our people so that they can fulfil their potential and establish rewarding careers. Since 2009 over 21,000 B&Q employees have been awarded City & Guilds retail qualifications; Screwfix in the UK has over 9% of its total workforce on fast-track management development programmes; and in 2011/12 at Castorama France, almost 70% of employees had undertaken at least one programme through its new online training portal, enabling them to take responsibility for their personal development anytime, anywhere.
Company culture
We are an extremely diverse business. With stores and head offices across Europe and Asia, and sourcing offices in Vietnam, India and Brazil, it's vital we're well connected. Under the ethos of working as 'One Team', we've established intelligent networks so colleagues can interact, share ideas and move easily around the group, and knowledge and talent can be placed where they make the biggest difference.
Engaging our people
An engaged workforce means great customer service, so we take employee engagement very seriously. In 2011/12 we achieved a GrandMean engagement score of 4.3 out of 5 on the Gallup Q12 survey, or what we call internally the One Team engagement survey, and B&Q was awarded the Gallup Great Workplace Award for the fifth year running.
Environment and sustainability
In March 2012 we made a public commitment to become Net Positive, based on our belief that businesses must do more than minimise their negative impact - they must have a positive impact on the world.
We have identified four focus areas - timber, energy, innovation, communities - where we believe Kingfisher can have the most impact, and we have set ourselves stretching ambitions and targets. For more information, go to www.kingfisher.com/netpositive.
Opportunities
We are creating leaders of the future through emerging talent programmes, such as the International Graduate Programme. This two-year programme for 2:1 graduates with fluency in French is designed to develop outstanding employees who are able to work seamlessly in our international commercial divisions. It is split between Brico Depot near Paris and B&Q in Southampton, with successful candidates expected to move into international roles, working up to senior category specialist level. Contact: kingfisher@grb.uk.com.
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