DIY giant B&Q announced today it is to shut one in six of its least profitable stores after its annual profits fell £75million last year. The home improvement chain  is to close as many as 60 of its 360 stores over the next two years as part of a restructuring of its UK and Ireland business. Shares in Kingfisher, which trades as B&Q and Screwfix in the UK, jumped up 16p each - a five per cent rise - when the London Stock Exchange opened this morning. Changes: B&Q is to close as many as 60 of its 360 stores over the next two years as part of a restructuring of its UK and Ireland business . Parent company Kingfisher, which also owns Screwfix, plans to axe about 15 per cent of surplus space as a result of the review of its 360-strong B&Q estate. The move was announced as it posted a 7.5 per cent drop in annual profits to £675million after sales fell by 1.4 per cent to £11billion in the year to January 31. This is down from 744million in the 2013-14 year. The planned store closures form part of a plan by new Chief Executive Veronique Laury to shake-up the 360-store B&Q business. Kingfisher, which trades as B&Q and Screwfix in Britain and Castorama and Brico Depot in France, made a pre-tax profit of 675 million pounds  in the year to January 31.The results are the first to be presented by Laury, who succeeded Ian Cheshire in December. Veronique Laury said the closure plan was one of a number of 'sharp' decisions being taken by the FTSE 100 company. She added: 'Home improvement is a great market with huge potential and Kingfisher has a strong position within it with further scope to grow in a sustainable way. However, it is clear to me that we need to organise ourselves very differently to unlock our potential.' Other plans include cutting back on some of the 393,000 products sold across the company, particularly as only 7,000 - amounting to 7 per cent of sales - are currently sold in at least two of Kingfisher's operating companies. The company will also look to optimise vacant store space and is in discussions with several retailers about sub-letting opportunities. Kingfisher said the impact on jobs from the B&Q store closure plan will be broadly neutral as it is opening about 60 outlets under the Screwfix brand, while it will also look to redeploy positions to other parts of the business. Ms Laury denied that the UK DIY market was in decline and said the store closure plan reflected a desire to reinvigorate the company's UK offer. She added that it had long been clear that B&Q had too many stores in its estate. B&Q UK & Ireland's total sales were up 1.9 per cent to £3.7 billion in the financial year, with sales of outdoor seasonal and building products up 4 per cent. Profits were 16 per cent higher at £276million. In contrast, profits in France were 12 per cent lower at £349 million due to the impact of weak consumer confidence and a declining housing and construction market. Kingfisher said it will close a small number of stores in the country. It came as Kingfisher, which had a binding agreement to buy French rival Mr Bricolage, was forced to pull out of the £200m deal. The acquisition had been referred to competition authorities because Kingfisher already owns Castorama and Brico Depot in France. While it had the backing of a key shareholder, support was withdrawn by franchisee group the Association Nationale des Promoteurs du Faites Le Vous-Même (ANPF), which holds a 42pc stake in Mr Bricolage. Forty-four of Mr Bricolage's 500 stores, many of them franchises, would had to have been sold to placate regulators. It has since emerged that today was the deadline for the deal and all parties had to agree if there was an extension.
B&Q will shut one in six of its least profitable stores in next two years . Its annual profits were down £75m to £675m to the end of January . DIY giant will also reduce number of products and sub-let parts of stores .