How it started
History
The company was founded in 1982 as Paternoster Stores Ltd, to conduct a buyout of the British Woolworths chain. In March 1983, Paternoster changed its name to Woolworth Holdings plc. Woolworths already owned B&Q, and the company expanded through subsequent acquisitions of companies such as Superdrug and Comet.
The business acquired Screwfix in July 1999, which is now the United Kingdom's largest multi channel retailer of trade tools, accessories and hardware products. The company was led by Sir Geoffrey Mulcahy from January 1984, until his retirement in December 2002. Largely through his influence, the company became the major sponsor of British sailor Ellen MacArthur.
Woolworth Holdings was renamed Kingfisher plc in December 1989. Further acquisitions included European companies such as Castorama, BUT S.A. and Wegert. In July 1999, Kingfisher attempted a takeover of Asda, one of the United Kingdom's largest supermarket chains, only to be beaten by Walmart.
In August 2001, coupled with an acrimonious battle for control of Castorama, the resultant share price pressure forced the sale and demerger of several parts of the company, including Woolworths, and the demerger of the electricals business to form Kesa Electricals in July 2003 – causing the company to refocus entirely around DIY.
The company was led by Gerry Murphy from December 2002 to November 2007. In January 2008, Kingfisher appointed Ian Cheshire as group chief executive. Cheshire was formerly B&Q's chief executive; his B&Q role was taken over in April 2009, by Euan Sutherland, who also headed up the United Kingdom division of Kingfisher.
From Wikipedia’s article on Kingfisher plc, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3