INDEX / DIRECTORY / B&Q

B&Q

Home & DIY 103 CITED SOURCES UPDATED 2026-09-22 METHOD V6.5
BDS-1000 Score 455 /1000 C Tier C - High
Military ↗ 0.00 Digital ↗ 5.10 Economic ↗ 3.50 Political ↗ 1.82
OWNERSHIP TREE 1 brands and group businesses View all

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Key Findings

  • Economic: B&Q currently lists Keter and Palram-Canopia garden products; both are Israeli-founded manufacturers.1, 2, 3, 4
  • Settlements: Keter previously operated at Barkan Industrial Zone in the occupied West Bank, but B&Q stated in 2012 that it was not sourcing from that site; sources describe Keter’s Barkan operations as having ceased during 2014–2016.5, 6, 7
  • Digital: Kingfisher’s current recruitment notice declares that email and collaboration data may be transferred to Israel; it covers potentially sensitive applicant data but does not identify the recipient, volume, hosting location, retention, or any state/security access.8
  • Political: Kingfisher publicly acted on Ukraine through sourcing measures and British Red Cross support, while no comparable Israel/Palestine-specific action was identified in the reviewed record; no Israeli-state partnership, lobbying, military-welfare donation, or suppression act was found.9, 10

Target Profile

FieldDetail
Company NameB&Q Limited / B&Q, within Kingfisher plc
JurisdictionEngland and Wales; B&Q Limited is an English private limited company incorporated on 26 February 1970.
HeadquartersB&Q House, Chestnut Avenue, Chandlers Ford, Eastleigh, Hampshire, SO53 3LE. Kingfisher plc is registered at 1 Paddington Square, London.11, 12
SectorHome-improvement, DIY, garden, trade-professional and e-commerce retail.12
OwnershipB&Q Limited is a wholly owned indirect Kingfisher plc subsidiary; Kingfisher France Limited is recorded as B&Q Limited’s active PSC with 75% or more of shares and voting rights. Kingfisher plc is UK listed. As at 31 January 2026, disclosed voting-rights interests included Silchester International Investors LLP (10.97%, later notified at 9.97%), BlackRock (7.67%), T. Rowe Price Associates (4.95%), and Norges Bank (3.54%).11, 12, 13
Key Executives / GovernanceClaudia Arney, Chair; Thierry Garnier, CEO during his announced transition period; Bhavesh Mistry, CFO; Graham Bell, CEO of B&Q UK & Ireland.12, 14
Israeli-Nexus SummaryThe documented nexus is B&Q’s retail sale of products from Israeli-founded garden-product manufacturers, principally Keter and Palram; the record does not establish Israeli operations, military contracting, settlement-origin B&Q products, or current sourcing from Keter’s former Barkan facility.1, 3, 5, 15

Key Facts:

Executive Summary

B&Q is a UK home-improvement retailer operating within Kingfisher plc. Its evidenced Israel-related commercial nexus is the continuing listing and sale through DIY.com of Keter-branded garden storage, sheds, furniture and related products, alongside Palram-Canopia greenhouses. Keter is Israeli-founded and identifies headquarters, innovation and R&D activity in Israel; Palram is likewise an Israeli manufacturer. The audits do not establish the contractual route, importer of record, shipment route, or origin of particular B&Q stock-keeping units.1, 2, 3, 4, 18

The principal historical settlement-related issue concerns Keter, not a demonstrated B&Q settlement operation. Who Profits documented Keter’s former Barkan Industrial Zone facility in the occupied West Bank. In response to campaign correspondence in 2012, B&Q stated that it was not sourcing from the Barkan site and had received guarantees from Keter to support that claim. Sources describe Keter’s Barkan activity as having ceased or been discontinued between 2014 and 2016. Current evidence does not identify a B&Q item made in a Keter Israeli facility, a settlement facility, or the former Barkan site; nor does it establish that B&Q’s present Keter retail relationship has a settlement-product component.5, 6, 7, 18

The audits identify several limiting and exculpatory findings. No public evidence identified links B&Q or Kingfisher to Israeli military, police, prison, border-security, intelligence, defence-prime, settlement-construction, barrier, checkpoint, or military-logistics contracts. No public evidence identified establishes B&Q or Kingfisher technology provision to Israeli state or security bodies, use of Israeli-origin surveillance systems, participation in Project Nimbus, Israeli data-centre activity, or Israeli retail operations.15, 19, 20, 21

A separate, historic item is Kingfisher’s April 2020 statement that it had sourced approximately three million face masks from suppliers in China and Israel as part of a European PPE and health-service funding programme. The supplier was not identified, the attribution remains unverified at company level, and the record does not establish a continuing relationship or conflict-related activity.22

Under the fixed human-vetted V6.5 assessment, B&Q receives a BRS of 455, placing it in Tier C (Substantial Complicity). Digital governs because the rubric treats documented routing of potentially sensitive recruitment data through Israel as jurisdictional data exposure; the score does not claim a named Israeli recipient, state access, surveillance deployment, customer-data transfer, or a known applicant volume.8 Economic separately reflects B&Q’s current, long-running retailing of Keter goods without transferring Keter’s Israeli identity or former Barkan operation to B&Q.1, 5, 18 Political is limited to the documented Ukraine-versus-Israel/Palestine corporate-response contrast, not affirmative Israeli-state advocacy.9, 10

Timeline of Relevant Events

DateEvent
1969B&Q was founded in Southampton by Richard Block and David Quayle.16
24 April 2012Corporate Watch reported that B&Q had said it would seek supplier confirmation that goods had not been made by a company operating in a conflict zone or occupied territory and would use exit strategies if progress were not achieved; the underlying correspondence was not independently retrieved.6
2012B&Q told Corporate Watch that it was not sourcing from Keter’s Barkan site and had received guarantees from Keter supporting that claim.5
2014–2016Sources describe Keter’s Barkan Industrial Zone operations as having ceased or been discontinued during this period.7
April 2020Kingfisher stated that B&Q and Screwfix were among group businesses sourcing approximately three million face masks from suppliers in China and Israel for a European PPE and health-service funding programme.22
2 March 2022Kingfisher announced it would stop selling products directly sourced from Russian and Belarusian suppliers and support the British Red Cross Ukraine Crisis Appeal; no comparable Israel/Palestine-specific action was identified in the reviewed record.10
November 2024Kingfisher’s recruitment privacy notice stated that recruitment-related email and collaboration transfers may occur to Israel, among other countries; it did not identify a recipient, provider, volume, or Israeli state, military, settlement, or security connection.8
6 May 2026Kingfisher announced Thierry Garnier’s resignation, with a 12-month notice period during which he remained CEO and a Board member.14
September 2026Live B&Q material reviewed by the audit listed Keter products for purchase.1, 2

Corporate Overview

B&Q Limited is an active English private limited company within the Kingfisher group. Kingfisher’s FY2025/26 reporting identifies B&Q Limited as a wholly owned UK subsidiary undertaking. Companies House records Kingfisher France Limited as B&Q Limited’s active PSC with 75% or more of shares and voting rights; a June 2026 filing recorded the cessation of Kingfisher Holdings Limited as PSC. The available filing record does not establish the complete post-reorganisation intermediate ownership chain beyond this context.11, 12

Kingfisher’s retail banners and operations include B&Q, Castorama, Brico Dépôt, Screwfix, TradePoint and Koçtaş. Its operations are reported principally in the United Kingdom and continental Europe, with Koçtaş operating as a 50%-owned Turkish undertaking. Kingfisher’s reviewed list of related undertakings contains no Israel-domiciled controlled undertaking.12, 23

The reviewed material identifies B&Q-branded franchise stores in Saudi Arabia through Al-Futtaim Group. No equivalent B&Q franchise, licensee, branch, office, warehouse, factory, R&D centre, or controlled operating subsidiary in Israel or the Occupied Palestinian Territories was identified.17, 21

B&Q’s documented supplier nexus is commercial rather than ownership-based. Keter and Palram are not identified as B&Q subsidiaries or joint ventures. Kingfisher describes vendor-branded goods as sourced by buying teams within individual retail banners, but this does not disclose whether B&Q buys Keter products directly or through a distributor.3, 18

Domain Summaries

Military: Military

Mechanism of Involvement

No public evidence identified of contracts, tenders, procurement awards, framework agreements, memoranda of understanding, export licences, or supply arrangements between B&Q or Kingfisher and the Israeli Ministry of Defence, IDF, Israel Prison Service, Border Police, intelligence services, defence primes, or comparable Israeli security bodies.15, 24

No public evidence identified establishes that B&Q manufactures, markets, distributes, exports, or supplies military-specification, tactical, ruggedised, dual-use, weapons, munitions, logistics, construction, barrier, checkpoint, detention-facility, base-service, or settlement-infrastructure goods or services to Israeli military or security end-users.15, 24

Counter-Arguments and Evidence Limits

B&Q is documented as a consumer and trade home-improvement retailer, not a defence manufacturer or contractor. Kingfisher’s B&Q UK Armed Forces Covenant Gold membership is reported as an employment and community credential and does not establish a procurement or commercial relationship with Israeli forces or any other armed force.12, 24

Historical scrutiny of Keter concerned a third-party retail supplier’s alleged settlement-linked operations, not B&Q defence activity. It does not establish that B&Q procured goods from Barkan or Ariel, that a particular product originated in a settlement, that the relationship continued after 2012 on the same terms, or that products reached security or military end-users.5, 6, 7

Named Entities and Evidence Map

Digital: Digital

Mechanism of Involvement

Kingfisher’s documented enterprise technology includes TCS OmniStore retail systems, Alteryx people analytics, and a multi-cloud approach using Google Cloud, AWS and Microsoft Azure. Its disclosed AI activity includes Athena, product recommendations, personalisation, supply-chain visibility and Google Cloud AI-powered shopping tools. These are described as customer- and operations-facing retail systems.25, 26, 27

Kingfisher’s recruitment privacy notice states that recruitment-related email and collaboration transfers may occur to Israel. This is affirmative evidence of a declared Israel transfer route, but the notice does not identify an Israeli recipient, supplier, hosting location, access model, data volume, retention period, or connection to Israeli state, military, settlement, or security bodies. It does not establish transfer of B&Q customer, payment, behavioural, loyalty, product-search, or store data to Israel.8

Under the V6.5 Data-Exposure / Sovereignty rule, that verified jurisdictional route governs Digital at 5.1 / 7.0 / 9.0. Impact is kept at the bottom of the sensitive-data floor; magnitude reflects a current standard recruitment-processing route rather than an evidenced small or ceased instance; and proximity reflects the in-scope Kingfisher controllers’ direct control of collection, processing and transfer. These method findings do not convert the unresolved recipient or access model into evidence of Israeli state use.8

Counter-Arguments and Evidence Limits

No public evidence identified shows B&Q or Kingfisher licensing, integrating, or using a named Israeli-origin enterprise-security, surveillance, biometric, analytics, or cyber vendor. No public evidence identified shows use of Israeli-origin facial recognition, biometric identification, predictive policing, workforce surveillance, offensive cyber capabilities, or digital weapons.19, 25, 26

No public evidence identified establishes participation in Project Nimbus, an Israeli data-centre presence, sovereign-cloud provision to Israeli state institutions, or technology deployment for Israeli military, intelligence, law-enforcement surveillance, or security use. Kingfisher is documented as a commercial retail buyer of cloud services rather than a technology vendor to state bodies.19, 21, 25

Named Entities and Evidence Map

Economic: Economic

Mechanism of Involvement

B&Q continues to market Keter-branded garden products, including storage, sheds, chairs, benches, furniture sets, stools and tables. It also lists Palram-Canopia greenhouses. Keter is Israeli-founded and identifies headquarters, innovation and R&D centres in Israel; Palram is an Israeli manufacturer.1, 2, 3, 4

Keter’s former Barkan facility is materially relevant to the historical record. Who Profits documented the facility in the Barkan Industrial Zone in the occupied West Bank. However, B&Q’s contemporaneous position was that it was not sourcing from Barkan, and sources describe Keter’s Barkan operations as having ceased during 2014–2016.5, 7

Counter-Arguments and Evidence Limits

The record does not establish the origin of B&Q’s present Keter items. Keter’s 2024 Sustainability Report identifies manufacturing across ten countries, including Israel and the UK, but does not identify B&Q as a customer, specify the origin of B&Q products, or mention Barkan. No public evidence identified establishes that a current B&Q Keter product is made at an Israeli facility, in a settlement, or at the former Barkan facility.18

No public evidence identified shows B&Q selling Hamat/Lipski products, although Hamat has separately been documented as operating in Barkan. The Hamat allegation cannot be attributed to B&Q absent evidence of a commercial relationship.28

No public evidence identified shows B&Q or Kingfisher investments, acquisitions, factories, data centres, logistics hubs, R&D facilities, real estate, or controlled operations in Israel or the Occupied Palestinian Territories. No public evidence identified shows Israel-attributed B&Q revenue, Israeli corporate-balance-sheet investments, or a dedicated importer or joint venture for Israeli-origin goods.12, 21

Named Entities and Evidence Map

Political: Political

Mechanism of Involvement

No public evidence identified of a B&Q or Kingfisher public statement specifically addressing Israel-Palestine, Gaza, or the October 2023 escalation in reviewed corporate materials and bounded searches. Kingfisher’s reviewed FY2024/25 and FY2025/26 annual reports and FY2025/26 Responsible Business Report had no text match for “Israel” or “Palestin”; this is document-scoped and does not prove no statement exists elsewhere.9, 29

The adjudicated Political frame is the comparative corporate response. Kingfisher publicly addressed the Ukraine crisis, stopped directly sourced Russian and Belarusian products, supported the British Red Cross Ukraine Crisis Appeal, and reported employee-volunteering support, while the reviewed record identified no comparable Israel/Palestine-specific action.10 Under the rubric this supports the Double Standard band at 2.5 / 5.1 / 9.0: episodic national corporate visibility, with Kingfisher as the direct actor, but no sustained Israel-specific political programme.

Kingfisher’s April 2020 Israel-sourced PPE procurement was a European COVID-19-response item. It predates the current conflict period, did not identify the supplier, and does not establish a current Israeli supplier relationship, political alignment, or conflict-related asset mobilisation.22

Counter-Arguments and Evidence Limits

Kingfisher states that it made no political donations in FY2025/26 or FY2024/25 and does not intend to make them in future. Its shareholder authority is described as precautionary statutory compliance, not evidence of a donation.12 No public evidence identified shows corporate donations, lobbying, sponsorships, fundraising, logistics, or other support directed to Israeli military-welfare, settlement, anti-BDS, or comparable political organisations.9, 12

No public evidence identified shows B&Q or Kingfisher operations in Israel, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Gaza, or the Golan Heights; nor was either company identified in the reviewed OHCHR settlement-business materials or specified civil-society databases. These are bounded, document-scoped findings, not proof of absence from all future or live databases.20, 21, 29

Named Entities and Evidence Map

BDS-1000 Score

Method: V6.5

DomainIMPV-Domain Score
Military0.000.000.000.00
Digital5.107.009.005.10
Economic3.507.009.003.50
Political2.505.109.001.82

Digital is the maximum domain score under the fixed V6.5 assessment, with Economic reflecting the documented commercial supplier nexus. The overall tier incorporates the cross-domain record while retaining audit limits: the score does not convert unverified product origin, historic and exited operations, or absent military evidence into stronger claims.

This is an evidence-led, human-vetted method. It assesses documented activity type, scale and directness rather than imputing liability through nationality, supplier history alone, unrelated investors, or unverified allegations.

Methodology Note

Footnotes

  1. https://www.diy.com/departments/outdoor-garden/garden-buildings/sheds/DIY581242.cat?Brand=Keter&Material+type=Plastic ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  2. https://www.diy.com/brands/keter ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  3. https://www.diy.com/departments/palram-greenhouse-h209m-w185m/247114_BQ.prd ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  4. https://www.diy.com/departments/outdoor-garden/greenhouses-growhouses/DIY581240.cat?Brand=Palram+-+Canopia ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  5. https://corporateoccupation.wordpress.com/2012/12/11/open-letter-to-bq-stocking-keter-products-supports-the-occupation/ ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9

  6. https://corporatewatch.org.uk/bid-370/ ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  7. https://www.whoprofits.org/companies/company/4060 ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  8. https://careers.kingfisher.com/privacy-policy ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  9. https://www.kingfisher.com/~/media/Files/K/Kingfisher-Plc/Universal/investors/result-reports-presentation/2026/2526-annual-report-and-accounts.pdf ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  10. https://www.kingfisher.com/media/news/2022/kingfisher-s-response-to-the-ukraine-crisis ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  11. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/00973387 ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  12. https://www.kingfisher.com/~/media/Files/K/Kingfisher-Plc/Universal/investors/result-reports-presentation/2026/2526-annual-report-and-accounts.pdf ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12 ↩13

  13. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/00973387/persons-with-significant-control ↩

  14. https://www.kingfisher.com/media/news/2026/directorate-change ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  15. https://caat.org.uk/data/companies/elbit-systems/ ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  16. https://www.diy.com/corporate/about/history ↩ ↩2

  17. https://www.rli.uk.com/al-futtaim-group-open-two-bq-franchise-stores-in-riyadh/ ↩ ↩2

  18. https://ketergroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Keter_Sustainability_Report_2024.pdf ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  19. https://www.kingfisher.com/media/news/2026/kingfisher-and-google-cloud-partner ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  20. https://www.ohchr.org/en/business/bhr-database ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  21. https://www.kingfisher.com/responsible-business/reporting/reports-and-publications ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  22. https://www.kingfisher.com/media/news/2020/kingfisher-plc-which-includes-b-q-and-screwfix-provides-p1-mil ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  23. https://www.kingfisher.com/about-us ↩

  24. https://www.declassifieduk.org/exposed-the-uk-firms-supplying-elbit-systems/ ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  25. https://www.tcs.com/who-we-are/newsroom/press-release/kingfisher-strategic-partnership-tcs ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  26. https://www.tcs.com/who-we-are/newsroom/press-release/european-home-improvement-company-kingfisher-plc-frictionless-customer-experience-tcs-omnistore ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  27. https://www.kingfisher.com/media/news/2023/kingfisher-launches-ai-powered-diy-assistant ↩

  28. https://investigate.afsc.org/company/hamat-group ↩ ↩2

  29. https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/09/un-human-rights-office-updates-database-businesses-involved-israeli ↩ ↩2 ↩3