Kingfisher has lowered its net pension deficit by £11 million since closing its defined benefit (DB) pension scheme to future accrual from 30 June 2012.
The retailer, which is the parent company of six organisations, including B&Q and Screwfix, showed in its 2012 Preliminary results that the pension gain includes £27 million arising from the closure of the scheme. The gain has been offset by a charge of £16 million for transitional payments to scheme members.
Kingfisher began a full review of its pension arrangements in April 2011, which led to the closure of the DB pension scheme. All UK employees had the opportunity to join a money purchase defined contribution (DC) pension scheme from that date.
