B&Q POLITICAL

Audit phase: Political Audit | Target company: B&Q (Kingfisher plc)^{1, 2}

Corporate Communications & Public Stance

No public evidence identified of a B&Q or Kingfisher public statement specifically addressing Israel-Palestine, Gaza, or the October 2023 escalation in the reviewed corporate materials and bounded searches.^{2, 3} Kingfisher’s FY2024/25 and FY2025/26 annual reports, and its FY2025/26 Responsible Business Report, contained no text match for “Israel” or “Palestin”; these document-level results do not establish that no statement exists elsewhere.^{4, 2, 3}

As a comparative benchmark, Kingfisher issued a dated public Ukraine-crisis statement on 2 March 2022, stating that it would stop selling products directly sourced from Russian and Belarusian suppliers and announcing support for the British Red Cross Ukraine Crisis Appeal.⁵ That action followed Kingfisher’s earlier disclosed exit from the Russian market through the sale of Castorama Russia, alongside planned exits from Portugal and Spain.^{6, 7} No equivalent Israel-Palestine-specific statement, donation, or product-sourcing action was identified in the reviewed evidence.^{5, 2, 3}

In April 2020, Kingfisher stated that it had ordered a further three million face masks from suppliers in China and Israel as part of a wider £1 million-plus European PPE and health-service funding programme.^{8, 9, 10, 11} The contemporaneous release did not identify the Israeli supplier, and later Kingfisher disclosures reviewed for this audit do not restate this sourcing relationship.^{8, 2, 12} The reference predates the current conflict period and is not evidence of a current Israeli supplier relationship or conflict-related activity.^{8, 2, 12}

Kingfisher’s FY2025/26 report describes the Group as operating in the UK, Ireland, France, Poland, Portugal, Spain, and Turkey; Israel is not listed as an operating country.^{2, 12}

Operations in Occupied or Contested Territories

No public evidence identified of B&Q, Kingfisher, or Kingfisher banners operating stores, franchises, dealerships, or documented contracts in Israel, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Gaza, or the Golan Heights.^{2, 12} Kingfisher’s disclosed banners include B&Q, Castorama, Brico Dépôt, Screwfix, TradePoint, and Koçtaş, with Turkey served through the Koçtaş joint venture.^{4, 13, 2}

Kingfisher’s FY2025/26 annual report identifies B&Q Limited as a wholly owned Group subsidiary and identifies Koçtaş Yapı Marketleri Ticaret A.Ş. in Turkey as a 50%-owned undertaking as at 31 January 2026.² It also identifies UNIO S.A.S. in France as 50%-owned.² No evidence identified connecting the Koçtaş joint venture, UNIO, or any other disclosed Group undertaking to Israeli settlement supply chains or occupied-territory operations.^{13, 2}

Kingfisher’s FY2025/26 Modern Slavery Act statement reports more than 2,500 goods-for-resale suppliers across 53 countries and more than 6,100 disclosed production sites across 73 countries.¹² Israel does not appear in that statement’s top-ten supplier-country or production-country tables, although those tables are not complete supplier lists and therefore do not prove an absence of Israeli suppliers.¹²

The supplied full-text review found no mention of B&Q, Kingfisher, its banners, or named principals in the retained 2023 and 2025 OHCHR settlement-business database update documents or in the specified UN and NGO reports.^{14, 15, 16} This is a document-scoped finding rather than a live-database-wide conclusion.^{15, 16} The prior audit’s Wikipedia mirror check found no Kingfisher or B&Q entry, but that secondary source should not substitute for direct confirmation against a current OHCHR database release.¹⁷

No public evidence identified of legal challenges, regulatory action, international-body scrutiny, or an NGO campaign specifically naming B&Q or Kingfisher in connection with Israeli settlements or occupied-territory operations.^{18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 16} B&Q and Kingfisher were not identified in the reviewed Ethical Consumer, BDS Movement, Who Profits, AFSC Investigate, or Don’t Buy Into Occupation materials.^{18, 19, 20, 21, 22} Because no campaign naming the company was identified, no public evidence identified of a company response to such a campaign exists to review.^{18, 19, 20, 21, 22}

A surfaced allegation concerning an Israeli-branded retail supplier and an alleged Saudi B&Q franchise was not incorporated as a finding because the proposed underlying company and retail sources could not be independently retrieved and verified.²

Internal Governance, Content & Retail Policies

No public evidence identified of HR discipline, dismissal, litigation, union disputes, or public controversy involving B&Q or Kingfisher employees’ Israel-Palestine-related speech, symbols, or advocacy.^{2, 12} A targeted search surfaced an unrelated 2025 B&Q employment-tribunal result, but it did not establish an Israel-Palestine connection.²

B&Q and Kingfisher are physical and e-commerce home-improvement retailers rather than identified editorial or social-content platforms; no public evidence identified of platform moderation, algorithmic-content, or editorial-policy action concerning Palestinian advocacy.^{2, 12}

No public evidence identified of Israel-, West Bank-, or settlement-specific product labelling, country-of-origin disclosure, sourcing policy, retail categorisation, or related regulatory action by B&Q or Kingfisher.^{23, 24, 12} Kingfisher’s FY2025/26 Modern Slavery Act statement states that its salient human-rights assessment includes land rights and identifies PPE among higher-risk goods-for-resale categories, but it does not identify Israel, Palestine, settlement-origin goods, or a related remediation case.¹² The FY2023/24 and FY2024/25 Modern Slavery Act statements were located, while the refreshed FY2025/26 statement provides the current reviewed disclosure.^{23, 24, 12}

Brand Heritage & State Partnerships

B&Q identifies Richard Block and David Quayle as its 1969 founders, and its corporate history states that “B&Q” was shortened from “Block and Quayle.”^{25, 26} The business subsequently became part of Kingfisher.²⁶

Historic reporting states that Richard Block left B&Q in 1976 and David Quayle left in the late 1970s or 1982; Richard Block died in February 2023 and David Quayle died in April 2010.^{27, 28, 29} B&Q’s current history continues to acknowledge both founders, but no retrieved evidence establishes a current governance, ownership, executive, advisory, promotional, or operational role for either person.^{25, 27, 26, 28, 29} Historical brand association is therefore confirmed, while a current substantive founder-emeritus relationship is not established on this record.^{25, 27, 26, 28, 29}

No public evidence identified of a formal B&Q or Kingfisher disavowal of either founder.^{25, 27, 26} No identified political act by either founder was found that would establish a basis for such a disavowal.^{25, 27, 26}

No public evidence identified of B&Q or Kingfisher using military heritage, defence-sector ties, or state-security origins in commercial branding.²⁶ no public evidence identified of Israeli state honours, Israeli-government hosting, Israeli academic or governmental partnerships, “Brand Israel” sponsorships, or military-linked branding by B&Q or Kingfisher.^{2, 3, 26}

Kingfisher’s leadership biography records Thierry Garnier’s 2016 French Légion d’Honneur award.^{30, 2} This is a French state honour and the reviewed materials provide no Israel-Palestine, Israeli-state, or Israeli-government connection.^{30, 2}

Lobbying, Advocacy, Financing & Logistics

Kingfisher is listed on the EU Transparency Register, with corporate-affairs and regulatory engagement described through relevant trade-association and stakeholder activity.³¹ The reviewed disclosure identifies no Israel-Palestine, anti-BDS, settlement, military-welfare, boycott, or Middle East-policy lobbying.³¹

Kingfisher’s FY2025/26 annual report states that the company made no political donations in FY2025/26 or FY2024/25 and does not intend to make political donations in future.² The report explains that annual shareholder authority is sought on a precautionary basis to avoid inadvertent statutory breach; such authority is not evidence that a donation was made.² This company-level disclosure does not establish the personal political activity of directors, employees, institutional investors, or their clients.²

No public evidence identified of B&Q or Kingfisher corporate donations, sponsorships, fundraising, logistics, or other support directed to FIDF, JNF/KKL, Lev Echad, Israeli reservist funds, Regavim, Im Tirtzu, settlement organisations, or comparable military-welfare bodies.^{2, 3, 12} no public evidence identified of UK lobbying-register or Electoral Commission activity specific to Middle East policy, although direct record-level extraction from those interfaces was not completed and empty search results alone are not treated as proof of absence.²

The April 2020 Israel-sourced PPE order was part of a European COVID-19 response and not a conflict-period asset mobilisation.^{8, 9, 10, 11} No post-19 July 2024 or post-November 2024 Israel-Palestine-related asset mobilisation by B&Q or Kingfisher was identified in the reviewed materials.^{2, 12} By comparison, Kingfisher’s March 2022 Ukraine response included a named British Red Cross donation and employee-volunteering support in Poland and Romania.⁵

Corporate Structure & Primary Mission

B&Q Limited is an active UK private limited company, company number 00973387, incorporated on 26 February 1970 and registered at B&Q House, Chestnut Avenue, Chandlers Ford, Eastleigh, Hampshire, SO53 3LE.¹ Its registered SIC activities cover non-specialised retail, specialist retail, and mail-order/internet retail, and its 2026 confirmation statement is dated 21 June 2026.^{1, 32}

Kingfisher plc is an active UK public limited company, company number 01664812, incorporated on 16 September 1982 and registered at 1 Paddington Square, London.^{33, 34} It is classified under SIC 70100, “Activities of head offices.”³⁴ Companies House records that Kingfisher has been exempt from PSC-information requirements since 12 December 2020 because its voting shares trade on a UK regulated market.³⁵

A 19 June 2026 B&Q Limited filing records the cessation of Kingfisher Holdings Limited as a PSC and a change of details for Kingfisher France Limited as a PSC.³² The filing history does not establish the complete post-reorganisation intermediate ownership chain; B&Q Limited should therefore be described as within the Kingfisher group, with Kingfisher France Limited appearing as its recorded PSC in that filing context.³² Kingfisher publishes corporate-governance and section 172 materials for B&Q Limited and other Group entities, including Kingfisher France Limited, Kingfisher Holdings Limited, Screwfix Direct Limited, and Kingfisher International Holdings Limited.³⁶

As at 31 January 2026, Kingfisher disclosed notified voting-right interests of Silchester International Investors LLP at 10.97%, BlackRock at 7.67%, T. Rowe Price Associates at 4.95%, and Norges Bank at 3.54%.² A subsequent Silchester notification recorded 9.97% as at 23 March 2026.² The Companies House PSC exemption means the absence of a named PSC is not evidence that no large institutional holder exists.^{35, 2}

No state-held golden share, state ownership, sovereign-wealth stake, or geopolitical mission was identified in the reviewed corporate disclosures.^{34, 2} Kingfisher describes its purpose as providing home-improvement products and services through stores and e-commerce across its banners and joint ventures.^{4, 13, 2}

Executive & Leadership Footprint

Claudia Arney became Kingfisher Chair at the conclusion of the 20 June 2024 AGM, succeeding Andrew Cosslett after he did not stand for re-election.³⁷ Current corporate materials list Arney as Chair, Thierry Garnier as CEO during his transition period, and Bhavesh Mistry as CFO, appointed in January 2025.^{2, 38} The leadership page also identifies Graham Bell as CEO of B&Q UK & Ireland and names the current Board and Group Executive.²

On 6 May 2026, Kingfisher announced Garnier’s resignation to take a senior leadership role outside Kingfisher’s markets, stated that he had a 12-month notice period, and said that his departure date would be announced later.³⁸ The leadership page continued to list him as CEO when retrieved.² Earlier reporting that Garnier would leave in 2026 is superseded by this more specific official transition disclosure.^{39, 38}

Targeted searches produced no attributable public record connecting Richard Block, David Quayle, Claudia Arney, Thierry Garnier, Bhavesh Mistry, Graham Bell, or the identified current Kingfisher directors to Israel-Palestine statements, donations, fundraising, JNF/FIDF support, settlement organisations, military-welfare support, anti-BDS activity, or suppression of Palestinian advocacy.^{2, 25, 27, 26} The searches also produced no affirmative source connecting Silchester International Investors LLP, the disclosed holder above the 10% threshold at 31 January 2026, to such activity in relation to its Kingfisher holding.²

Kingfisher’s disclosed external appointments include Arney’s roles with the Panel on Takeovers and Mergers and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport; other directors’ appointments at commercial, investment, and professional bodies; Graham Bell’s EDRA/GHIN board membership; and Sapna Dutta’s Crisis trusteeship.² None of the disclosed appointment descriptions identifies an Israel-focused, settlement-linked, military-welfare, or anti-BDS organisation.²

These absence findings are bounded: they do not constitute a complete personal foundation, Charity Commission, Form 990, private-investment, social-media, or event-attendance audit for every director, executive, investor principal, or family vehicle.² No identified political act by the reviewed founders, chair, CEO, CFO, B&Q CEO, directors, or disclosed major holder was found to have continued after 19 July 2024 or after November 2024; this is an absence-of-evidence finding, not proof that no private or unreported act occurred.^{2, 25, 27}