Kingfisher, the owner of B&Q, has announced a drive to increase annual pre-tax profits by £500 million within five years and return £600 million to its shareholders.

Véronique Laury, chief executive, said the goal was to "leverage the scale of the business by becoming a single, unified company".

Following the sale of Homebase to Wesfarmers the retailer, which also owns Screwfix, is expected to face more competition.

Ms Laury said improving Kingfisher's digital capability was one of its priorities.

Head of research at Shore Capital, Clive Black said: "It looks like Kingfisher is coming to terms with the realities of the limitations of large shops, so a focus upon the digital age. We think shareholders will welcome the focus on digital over stores and the return of cash, albeit the exceptional costs are substantial."

Independent retail analyst Nick Bubb said that the plans would see costs of up to £800m.

"The benefits aren't as clear-cut as you might think, although the news that Kingfisher also intend to return about £600m of capital to shareholders over the next three years (via share buybacks) will provide some comfort." he said.

Kingfisher has also appointed Rakhi Parekh, a former Amazon UK executive, as non-executive director.
Ms Laury said Ms Parekh's wide-ranging experience in digital and multichannel retailing would be vital to the company's plans.

Kingfisher said in November that profit for the 13 weeks to 1st November fell 11.8% to £225m, with total sales down 3.6%.