So obviously, you know, Thierry and Bernard over here. We've also got John Mewett. There we go. Got his hand up as well, CEO of Screwfix. Welcome, John. So we've got about now 2 minutes left before we kick off the live presentation. Okay, and then, just a couple of housekeeping items for you all. So firstly, there's no planned fire alarm test this morning, which is great news. So if you do hear the buzzer, just go. Just ensure your devices, please, are all switched off.
Good morning. Welcome to everyone here in person at the London Stock Exchange, and also to those of you joining online. So, and first of all, on behalf of my colleagues in our group executive and our board, I would like to begin by thanking each of our 80,000 colleagues across the group for their commitment and dedication. They continue to work hard and to deliver in an environment that stays very demanding. We are proud of them and proud to be part of this team. So now, turning to our agenda for today on slide three, I will start the presentation with the key highlights and trends from the half, and Bernard will then provide a detailed review of our financial performance and outlook for the year. I will then update you on our operational and strategic progress, as well as our priorities for the second half.
We'll then be happy to take your questions. Starting off on slide four, with the key messages, like-for-like sales of -2.2% were slightly ahead of expectation against the backdrop of unseasonal weather and ongoing macroeconomic challenges in our markets. We delivered an adjusted PBT of GBP 336 million for the half. By region, U.K. and Ireland sales were better than expected, with B&Q and Screwfix both delivering positive like-for-like growth and gaining market share. This was a strong performance given the volatile weather and challenging macro. In France, we saw similar external factors, but a 10-year low of consumer confidence impacted market growth. In this environment, Castorama performed well, with Brico Dépôt slightly weaker. In Poland, we faced very strong comparatives throughout H1, but saw the trading environment deteriorate in Q2 due to the macro.
This led to weaker than expected sales and also to some impact on our gross margin. By category, we saw some encouraging trends. Our core and big ticket categories, which were 78% of our sales, were down by just 1% year-on-year. And crucially, the sales volumes of those categories showed an improving trend through the period. I will come back to the seasonal category sales shortly, but clearly, the weather impacted performance here. On the broader picture, we continue to invest for growth. We'll provide the detail on this later in this presentation, but I'm very pleased with our progress. For example, in e-commerce and marketplace, around our use of AI and data, the development of trade proposition, and the expansion of Screwfix.
Reflecting our H1 performance and the trading environment in our markets, we have updated our full-year PBT guidance to GBP 590 million. We remain comfortable with our guidance of over GBP 500 million of free cash flow for the year. Underpinning this confidence, we are announcing today a new GBP 300 million share buyback program starting early next month. We have completed GBP 600 million of buyback and paid GBP 900 million of dividends over the last four and a half years, demonstrating our commitment to shareholder value. Now, turning to slide 5 and the more detailed highlights. Overall, sales were resilient despite the impact on our market from the weather and macro, with total sales down 1% and like-for-like sales down 2.2%.
In Q2, like-for-like sales were down by 1.2%, showing momentum from the previous quarter. This was largely driven by better U.K. weather conditions in May and June, which helped us recover some of the lost seasonal sales from Q1. Core and big ticket sales also improved in Q2, and we saw a clear trend of customers switching from outdoor to indoor project compared to 2022. Like-for-like sales for Q3 to date are -2.4%. Again, the trend in Q2, we see continued positive momentum in the U.K. and Ireland, a slight slowdown in France, and a small improvement in Poland. E-commerce continued to perform well, with sales up 7.1%, reaching 16.8% penetration and up 1.2 points year-on-year.
This was supported by ongoing strengths in Marketplace, with B&Q Marketplace sales reaching 33% in July as a proportion of its total online sales. We delivered adjusted PBT of GBP 336 million, lower than our guidance of GBP 350 million for the half. UK and Ireland and France were slightly ahead of expectations, the latter due to good cost control, but this was more than offset by a lower-than-expected profit from Poland, and I will come back to this shortly. Free cash flow of GBP 346 million was in line with expectations, supported by the unwinding of prior year working capital positions, as previously guided. And finally, we returned more than GBP 260 million to shareholders in H1 through dividends and buybacks.
Along with a buyback program announced today, we have also declared an interim dividend of GBP 0.038, in line with last year. Moving now to slide six and looking at performance by category. 22% of our sales in H1 were from seasonal categories. This include products such as outdoor furniture, barbecues, but also outdoor paints and fencing. Like-for-like, seasonal sales were down 5.9% in the half. Many of our markets experienced unseasonal weather in H1, especially in March and July in the U.K. and France, and June in Poland. While there were some patches of good weather, overall, this was a heavy impact on trading, with double-digit declines in sales of seasonal categories in March and July.
The important takeaway is that sales and volume sold for our core product and big ticket categories have been increasingly resilient, including the benefit from some transference by customer to indoor project. These trends are encouraging for the second half of the year, where the seasonal weighting is lower. Now turning to slide seven and a summary of the trading conditions we faced in our main markets. In the U.K. and Ireland, we saw mixed but overall negative indicators on the macroeconomic position and the housing market. Yet, as of now, we continue to see a very resilient customer, along with repairs and maintenance, which drives the majority of our sales. We are observing a clear consumer trend of improve, not move, which is supporting robust demand from the trade segment. Like-for-like sales in the U.K. were up 1.7% year-on-year.
We have spoken about seasonal weather impact, but most encouragingly, our core and big ticket sales demonstrated strengths, up 2.8% year-on-year, and with Q2 sales accelerating from Q1. In France, we saw a macroeconomic environment that remains challenging, but unlike the U.K., consumer confidence is at a ten-year low, impacted by the perception of overall inflation and also by strikes and protests during the period. All these factors adversely affected home improvement market growth in H1. Against that context, we were pleased with the resilient performance of Castorama, again, supported by core and big ticket sales. Brico Dépôt was weaker, with like-for-like sales down 5%. Its performance was also impacted by the national strikes in Q1, a heavier impact of weather on its seasonal sales, and the reallocation of a portion of its marketing budget to digital.
This was well-intentioned, but ultimately not successful in relation to in-store traffic, and our approach has been corrected since mid-July. The business also saw lower cross-selling from its special arrivage promotions. And finally, in Poland, we faced a very challenging trading environment. For context, it's worth remembering that we had a very strong H1 in Poland last year, where like-for-like was plus 25.9%, and therefore trading against strong comparators. However, the environment of high inflation and interest rates has had a big impact on the Polish consumer, resulting in weaker demand for our products in Q2 than we had anticipated. And on slide 8, I would like to provide more detail on our diagnosis of the performance in Poland and how we are reacting to it.
Like-for-like sales were down 10.9% in H1 for the reasons outlined on the previous slide. To calibrate this performance, evening out the high comparative from last year, the two-year like-for-like of Poland in H1 was +12.2%. On market share, as expected, we lost some of the exceptional gains from last year, but our share remains up over a two-year period. Not a bad performance in this context, we had expected a better Q2. Our price index remains competitive and is being kept below key peers. Stock availability is above 98%. Our gross margin was 170 basis points lower year-on-year. This was mainly driven by two factors, both reflections of the trading environment in H1. First, while we remain disciplined in our promotional activities, customer participation in the normal cadence of our promotions was higher.
Second, clearance related to lower sales of specific ranges that has been purchased at a higher cost price. This latter point also impacted performance in August, but will not recur. On operating cost, this increased by 9.3% year-on-year, driven, as expected, by increases in pay rates and energy costs, new store openings, and higher technology spend. New stores contributed around one-third of the cost increase. For context, inflation rates in Polish economy were at around 15% for H1, and we also had a one-off charge in Q2 of over GBP 5 million related to ineffective FX hedges from lower stock purchases. Overall, retail profit decreased by 64% year-on-year, lower than we had expected. As a result, we are taking decisive actions on cost. Since the fourth quarter of last year, we have been working hard to align cost according to market conditions.
These actions were accelerated from June, which will further benefit us in the second half. We are securing additional purchase price reductions, further reducing our store staff numbers and incentive levels, lowering discretionary spend, and rephasing certain investment, including opening fewer stores. For example, as of July 31st, store staff numbers are down 7% year-over-year. We're also planning for a total of 5 new stores this year versus 7 previously. In H2, the OpEx comparative becomes a little easier, with a lower year-over-year impact from staff and energy cost inflation, and no further impact expected from ineffective FX charges. Overall, we are clear on what we need to do to navigate through the near-term environment in Poland. Longer term, our conviction remains high on the growth potential of this market and for our banner.
We are number one in the market and the most popular home improvement brand with an outstanding customer proposition. We'll talk later about marketplace and trade, two levers of the Kingfisher strategy, which we believe are significant growth drivers for Poland, and we remain confident in the medium-term store opening plan that we discussed in our full-year results, targeting up to 80 medium and compact stores over the next five years. So now let me hand over to Bernard to take you through the financials in detail.
Thank you, Thierry, and good morning, everyone. To slide ten and the key financials for the half year. Total sales in constant currency were down 1% to GBP 6.9 billion, reflecting resilience across both retail and trade channels, particularly in the U.K. and Ireland. Like-for-like sales were down 2.2%, with Q2 showing an improvement on Q1. We generated gross profit of GBP 2.5 billion, with gross margin down 40 basis points. This movement reflects higher customer participation in promotional activity in France and Poland, higher clearance costs and stock provisions, and some impact from our sales mix in Poland. In constant currency, retail profit decreased by 23% to GBP 433 million, with regional profit margin down 180 basis points to 6.3%.
While gross profit was up in the U.K., this was more than offset by lower gross profit in other regions. We also saw higher operating costs in the U.K. and Poland, largely due to staff pay rates and energy costs. Adjusted PBT decreased by 28.8% to GBP 336 million. Free cash flow was GBP 346 million, was in line with our expectations and supported by the unwind of working capital outflows from the prior year, as previously guided. Our total liquidity position remains strong at over GBP 800 million. Our net debt, which is mainly comprised of lease debt, is just under GBP 2.2 billion, with net leverage of 1.6x EBITDA. Moving to slide 11 and the performance of our major geographies. All year-on-year variances are in constant currency.
Starting with the U.K. and Ireland, we delivered good like-for-like growth of 1.7%, with the trend accelerating from -0.8% in Q1 to +4.1% in Q2. This was supported by significant improvement in seasonal sales, with more favorable weather in May and June. Space and acquisitions contributed 2.1%, mainly from new store openings at Screwfix and the acquisition in March of Screwfix Spares. Overall, sales in the U.K. and Ireland increased by 3.8%. Looking by banner, like-for-like sales at B&Q increased by 1%, with sales improving significantly in Q2. Core and big ticket sales were up 2.7%, with an acceleration in Q2, supported by improving volume trends. B&Q also saw strong growth in its e-commerce sales, up 19% year-over-year, driven by marketplace.
TradePoint delivered a good performance in the half against robust prior year comparatives. Like-for-like sales were down 1.8%, with penetration of B&Q sales reducing slightly to 20%. TradePoint sales were impacted by the proactive decision to switch off instant vouchers during big-ticket promotional events in support of profitability and investments in promotions on the retail side. Despite this change, new TradePoint membership sign-ups increased by 37% year-on-year. At Screwfix, like-for-like increased by 3.1%, with growth in all categories and significant market share gains in the half. Space growth and the acquisition of Screwfix Spares contributed circa 6% for total sales growth of 9.2%. U.K. and Ireland gross margin was flat versus last year, reflecting the effective management of inflation and favorable channel mix impacts from the strong growth of B&Q's e-commerce marketplace.
This was offset by higher clearance costs and stock provisions. Retail profit decreased by 9.8% to GBP 306 million, with an increase in gross profit more than offset by higher operating costs, up 8.9%. This was for a large part driven by cost inflation, including increases in staff and energy cost. Higher technology spend and costs associated with 59 new stores also added to the increase. Cost increases were partially offset by reductions achieved as part of our strategic cost reduction program. Turning to France, like-for-like sales were down 3.8%, with trading impacted by a challenging consumer environment and unseasonal weather conditions through the half. As we said in May, our Q1 sales were impacted by national strike action, which resulted in lower footfall to many of our stores, especially at Brico Dépôt.
The like-for-like trend improved slightly in Q2, driven by an uplift in seasonal category sales. At Castorama, our like-for-like sales were down 2.7%, which was a resilient performance in light of the environment. Core and big-ticket sales were down 0.9%, with positive growth in many key categories. Brico Dépôt like-for-like sales decreased by 5%, as described earlier by Thierry. The gross margin in France decreased by 30 basis points, largely reflecting the higher weighting of sales at Brico Dépôt towards arrivage, together with higher clearance cost. Retail profit decreased by 21.9% to GBP 104 million, with a 100 basis points decrease in the retail profit margin. Operating costs decreased by 1.5% due to the flexing of variable cost, together with cost reductions achieved as part of our strategic cost reduction program.
This was substantially offset by wage inflation and by higher energy costs and technology spend. With regards to Poland, Thierry has already covered the drivers of its performance in detail. In Iberia, like-for-like sales decreased by 1.2%. Retail profit of EUR 3 million was half of the prior year number, reflecting lower sales and gross margin and slightly higher operating costs, up 1.7%. Romania sales decreased by 8.4%, reflecting strong prior year comparatives. Like-for-like sales were down 4.9%, with trends improving in Q2. The retail loss increased to EUR 10 million, primarily reflecting lower sales and gross margin and slightly higher operating costs, up 1%. Other consists of the consolidated results of our new businesses, Screwfix International, NeedHelp, and franchise agreements.
A combined retail loss of GBP 10 million was realized, compared to GBP 30 million in the prior year. The loss was largely driven by Screwfix France as the business invested in the opening of stores. Our Turkish joint venture, Koçtaş, contributed a retail profit of GBP 5 million, up GBP 1 million from prior year. However, as I will explain in the next slide, this was more than offset by higher Koçtaş-related interest in the half. To slide 12 and the movement in adjusted PBT for the group. In constant currency, this was down GBP 142 million, or 29.7% for the half. Lower like-for-like sales at constant growth margin contributed GBP 55 million to the decline. The lower like-for-like gross margin rate, as already described, contributed a further GBP 25 million to the overall decrease.
Staff and energy inflation was GBP 88 million, largely driven by increases in pay rates, together with significantly higher energy cost. As a reminder, the year-on-year inflation of pay rates is higher in H1 than H2 due to the timing of pay increases last year. Energy inflation follows a similar cadence this year due to the higher rates last year at which energy exposures were hedged for H1. Other cost inflation and technology spend, which includes depreciation on IT assets, had an impact of GBP 39 million. We realized one-off charges of just under GBP 10 million in relation to the accounting for ineffective foreign exchange hedges. Over GBP 5 million of this related to Poland, linked to lower product purchases than we had originally expected.
We were able to partially offset these cost increases through flexing our staffing levels and variable cost, together with savings achieved as part of our strategic cost reduction program. I will provide a little more detail on this in the next slide. The net increase in operating costs, excluding costs related to new stores and new businesses, was GBP 54 million. The year-on-year movement in profit contribution from our new stores and new businesses was GBP 5 million. This was mainly driven by our new stores at Screwfix in the U.K. and Ireland. And finally, our non-retail profit items were GBP 13 million higher year on year. This comprises GBP 10 million higher central cost, which includes the impact of one-off insurance deductibles related to fire and subsidence claims in the U.K. and Poland.
In addition, interest and tax related to our Koçtaş joint venture was GBP 11 million higher, reflecting accounting adjustment linked to high inflation and interest rates in Turkey. These items were partially offset by GBP 7 million lower net finance cost. On slide 13, I'd like to cover our management of gross margin and operating costs in a little more detail. We delivered a group gross margin rate that was very slightly lower than our expectation, with resilience in the U.K. margin offset by impacts in France and Poland that were largely driven by the trading environment. We maintained competitive price initiatives across our banners, either below or close to 100. While we continued a disciplined approach to promotions, we saw higher customer participation in the activities that we run.
Together with the impact of higher clearance and stock provisions and sales mix in Poland, our overall gross margin was 40 basis points lower. Looking to the second half of the year, we expect to see a steeper easing of input cost inflation in H2, and we continue to see constructive results from our longer-term cost negotiations with suppliers. Maritime freight costs have also eased significantly, which will be a benefit in H2 and into the first half of next year. Our foreign exchange exposures from U.S. dollar purchases this year are fully hedged. As we said in our full year results, the impact of our hedges remains a headwind this year. Finally, we will continue to maintain our focus on competitive pricing while managing product cost inflation effectively. Turning to OpEx, we achieved GBP 83 million of operating cost reduction in H1, as I set out on the previous slide.
We're continuing to increase staff productivity, with the number of FTEs in the group reducing by 2,700 year-on-year, partially offsetting increases in pay rates. While our overall energy costs increased year-on-year, driven by the timing of our hedges, we managed to offset some of this through 12% lower energy consumption. Measures included installing air source heat pumps in Screwfix stores, further rollouts of LED lighting, and better controls over store temperatures. We also continued to deliver on our longer-term cost initiatives across the group, including offshoring one of our larger call centers. We also leveraged our scale to drive substantial savings in our goods not for resale. This included renegotiating and optimizing spend in IT, advertising and marketing, cleaning, security, and facilities management. In addition, range review costs were tightly managed.
In H2, we will continue to flex our cost base to align to trading conditions while continuing with our more strategic initiatives. As mentioned, we will benefit from the easing of cost inflation as we annualize pay increases given in H2 last year, and also as our energy hedges start to roll off. Finally, we are taking a disciplined and more pragmatic approach to our investments, for example, by rephasing the timing of certain range reviews, along with our planned store openings in Poland and Screwfix France. To slide 14 and the summary of cash flow movements during the half. We generated EBITDA of GBP 712 million. There was a working capital inflow of GBP 84 million, driven by a net increase in payables of GBP 173 million, partially offset by an increase in inventory of GBP 89 million.
The increase in inventory reflects typical inventory growth at the half year stage versus the year-end. I will comment on our inventory management in more detail on the next slide. The increase in payables was as expected, reflecting more normalized purchasing patterns compared to prior periods. Capital expenditure in the half was GBP 164 million, and free cash flow was GBP 346 million. We continue to expect more than GBP 500 million of free cash flow for the year, supported by the continued unwind of prior year working capital positions. Dividends of GBP 165 million were paid in relation to the final dividend for full year 2022, 2023, and a further GBP 99 million was returned to shareholders via our previous buyback program. Overall, this resulted in a net cash increase of GBP 51 million.
Turning to slide 15 and a little more detail on inventory management. Our net inventory was 2% lower year-on-year, despite lower than expected seasonal sales in H1. The impact of inflation was more than offset by our strategic reduction initiatives and lower purchasing. Inventory in volume is 11% lower year-on-year. All categories, excluding seasonal, are reducing in line with our expectation, and we achieved this while improving product availability to the highest levels seen since before the pandemic. Our AI-powered supply chain visibility tool, which provides our banner with real-time and end-to-end visibility of products from factory to store, is now live in France, Iberia, and Romania. We are already seeing early evidence of this improving availability and forecasting, which in turn drives shorter lead times and better inventory turn. We expect to roll out this solution to all remaining banners in H2.
Overall, we are on track to reduce inventory this year, and we see a significant multi-year opportunity from a structural reduction of inventory levels. Moving to slide 16 and our current liquidity and financial position. As of July 31, we had over GBP 800 million in total liquidity available, including GBP 317 million of cash and an undrawn credit facility of GBP 550 million. As a reminder, this facility is linked to sustainability and community-based targets, with most of it expiring in May 2026. Our financial debt consists of two fixed-term loans totaling GBP 100 million, which were taken out in H2 last year to top up our liquidity and help manage our working capital cycle. Net leverage was 1.6x EBITDA as of July 31, below our maximum threshold of 2 x.
To slide 17, and a reminder of the simplicity and consistency of our approach to capital allocation. Our first priority is reinvestment in the business to support profitable long-term growth. Our target gross CapEx is 3%-3.5% of sales per year to drive our organic growth. Our aim is to grow dividends progressively over time, and our target dividend cover range remains at 2.25-2.75 x, based on adjusted earnings per share. We may move outside of this target range from time to time, and it's likely that we'll do so this financial year. We have a clear track record of returning surplus capital to shareholders. We completed our second GBP 300 million buyback program last month.
We have returned over GBP 1.5 billion of capital to shareholders since full year 2020, while keeping leverage below our maximum threshold of 2x EBITDA. We are pleased to announce today that in addition to the interim dividend, which we are holding flat at GBP 0.038, we will buy back a further 300 million of our shares, starting from early next month. Finally, moving to slide 18 and our outlook and guidance for the full year. Further technical guidance can be found in the appendices on slide 34. Like-for-like sales for the third quarter to date are down 2.4%. Compared to our sales trend in Q2, we are seeing continued positive momentum in the U.K. and Ireland, with good demand from DIY and Do It For Me trade customers and improved weather since mid-August.
This is supporting growth in both core and big-ticket and seasonal category sales. In France, we have seen a slight slowdown in the sales trend, reflecting continued weak consumer sentiment in the country. In Poland, we have seen a small improvement in the sales trend relative to Q2. Core and big-ticket category volumes for the group show continued improvement in the year-over-year trend versus Q1 and Q2. More broadly, for H2, we will maintain disciplined trading and competitive price initiatives in all of our banners. We further expect an easing of year-on-year inflation related to COGS, staff, and energy cost. You can also expect from us a continued focus on managing our operating costs in accordance with demand levels. Finally, to reflect our H1 performance and the trading environments in our markets, we are updating our full year adjusted PBT guidance to circa GBP 590 million.
We remain confident in generating more than GBP 500 million of free cash flow for the year, which is reflected in our new GBP 300 million share buyback program. With my review completed, let me now hand back over to Thierry.
Thank you, Bernard. Now moving to an update on our operation and strategic progress, I would like to start on slide 20 by sharing some results from our recent surveys of retail and trade customers. We conduct regular and extensive surveys in the U.K., France, and Poland, allowing us to check the pulse of our markets. Overall, compared to our results in April, we saw improvements on forward indicators of consumer sentiment and home improvement activity, and an increased uptake in repairs and maintenance work, which is supportive for the pipeline of trade people. In all our key markets, the percentage of consumers who believe their personal finances will get worse in the next year has gone down. This is encouraging, especially in Poland, but we know that French consumers remain the least confident of the three markets.
This improving indicator translate into an increase in the number of consumers who intend to do more DIY to improve their homes in the next 12 months, particularly in the U.K. Underpinning this, we believe, is a stabilization of macroeconomic indicators and personal finances, as well as supportive industry trends, including energy and water efficiency, and the now stable trend of more working from home. The surveys also show a notable increase in maintenance and repair projects completed in the last 12 months, and as well, a higher intention to take up this type of home improvement activity. We see this in our home sales this year, with more consumers improving, not moving, to maintain and protect the value of their homes. We also see this trend supporting robust demand from the trade segment.
Our surveys show that 93% of trade people in the U.K. are working, which compares to 91% in March. 80% have more work in the pipeline, which has been stable for many months, and 83% of tradespeople are just as busy or busier than this time last year. So overall, we are encouraged by the behaviors and forward intentions that we have seen in these survey results. Now to slide 21, our resilience in a fast-moving and often challenging environment reflects the strong foundations of the Kingfisher Group. We are a well-balanced business with diverse banners across a broad geographic presence, and within most of these markets, we hold a first or second market position. We maintain a balanced exposure to DIY and DIFM trade customers, and a very high retention of new customer spend.
Over half of our sales remain linked to essential repairs and maintenance, and in an environment of fewer housing transactions, we clearly see many customers investing to protect the value of their homes. As ever, we remain focused on retail fundamentals. We have refreshed our overall ranges and launched many new own exclusive brands tailored to our banners' needs. Product availability is at the highest since pre-pandemic, and we continue to deliver value to our customers through price freeze campaign, price reduction on key ranges, and through our OEB and discount banners. We have maintained competitive price indices across our banners while managing cost inflation effectively, and we expect this to continue. We are encouraged by what we have seen in H1 and in our current trading with regards to improving volume trends in our core and big ticket categories.
So earlier this year, we refreshed our Powered by Kingfisher strategy to ensure data, trade, culture, and agility were given increased prominence and focus. Doing so also gave us better alignment with our investment for growth in multiple areas of the business. We continue to make strong progress against these strategic priorities, which, as a reminder, are listed here on slide 22, and I would like to spend a few minutes taking you through some of the more significant areas of progress and starting with slide 23. So we are pleased with the progress of Screwfix expansion outside the U.K. Ireland has been a great test case for the model of building brand awareness and critical mass through an online-only offering before committing to a physical estate. We opened our first store in Ireland in late 2019 after operating as a pure-play online business for four years.
We now have 36 stores with strong sales growth. In France, we are continuing to make positive steps in the market that provides us with very large growth potential. We opened our first stores last year and now have nine stores trading in Northern France, with a further two stores due to open next week. Our brand awareness is increasing strongly, and we are focused on building this further. We are expanding our ranges to give customers more choice with 14,000 SKU now available to our customers. In particular, our OEBs are landing well with French customers. We are also expanding our services by launching Trade Credit in H2 and testing Sprint 1-hour home delivery in Lille, giving customers more convenience options. We are doing this while maintaining a very strong price index.
As you can see from the bottom of the slide, customer satisfaction scores and feedback are very encouraging so far. Our plan in H2 is to further develop these key elements of our customer proposition to support the sales evolution of our stores. As such, we now plan to open up to 20 new stores this year rather than the 25 previously guided. And finally, we are excited to be launching Screwfix in Q3 as a pure-play online retailer in continental Europe via delivery. With delivery via our French distribution center, we will expand over time our delivery service across Europe to up to 20 new countries, and the first wave will include Poland, Spain, Belgium, and the Netherlands. Customers will be able to access a Screwfix offering and brand in four languages, with full visibility on pricing in their own local currency.
While there are no plans for physical stores in these countries in the near term, this is a low-risk and exciting step towards expanding one of the U.K.'s most popular retail brands into new markets. Moving to slide 24 and the progress of our e-commerce marketplace. Expanding customer choice through this proposition is a key driver of our ambition to reach 25% e-commerce sales penetration for the group. We are at 16.8% today, up 1.2 percentage points on last year and nearly 10 percentage points higher than four years ago. Overall, we are very pleased with the progress made on Marketplace since the launch at B&Q last year. We now offer customers of DIY.com over 700,000 additional SKUs across more than 20 core categories, through over 750 third-party merchants.
And as we grow our range, we have seen a significant increase in customer traffic and conversion. 30% of Marketplace customers are new to DIY.com, and 10% of customers who purchased a Marketplace product went on to make a purchase from our first-party range. Indeed, most of our best-selling Marketplace products are ones that complement our first-party offering, which demonstrates the power of the proposition. Marketplace sales at B&Q reached 33% of its total, total online sales in July. In Iberia, where we launched the proposition late last year, we are already at 11%, and with a take rate of 10%-15%, the revenue contribution of Marketplace is now meaningful and enough to move the dial upwards on B&Q gross margin rate.
As the business scales further and we launch in other banners at a low incremental cost, we are excited about the profit opportunity here. Our plans going forward remain ambitious. We will reach 1 million SKU at B&Q and leverage our new partnership with Octopia, one of the biggest marketplace merchant aggregators in Europe. We are preparing to expand the technology into France and Poland in 2024. And finally, we are trialing additional B2B services for merchant, leveraging our scale and resources to tap into what could be another interesting profit pool. As a reminder, our long-term ambition is for the group, excluding Screwfix, to generate 40% of its total e-commerce sales from Marketplace. On slide 25, I am equally excited to share how we are leveraging AI and data at Kingfisher to unlock new stream of revenue, profit, and productivity.
Our progress here has accelerated rapidly over the last year, with tangible financial benefits starting to come through. I want to touch on four areas briefly. Firstly, we are driving top-line growth through increased use of AI-powered recommendations, such as best product and personalization engines. Currently live at B&Q and Screwfix, early results are showing improved conversion rates of over 100%, with these engines generating as much as 10% of B&Q online sales in a given month. Secondly, we are using AI-driven tools to optimize markdowns and clearance processes. Through the use of real-time data on stock quantities and product margin, we can employ algorithm that determine optimal markdowns and clearance offers, rather than the blanket network-wide approaches. The aim here is higher margins, better sell- through of seasonal stock, and improved efficiency in range changes.
Although we are at early stages, pilots at B&Q in H1 delivered a very encouraging gross margin improvement on clearance products. Bernard has already discussed how we are using AI and data to optimize our supply chains. Our new supply chain visibility solution is already improving our forecasting, availability, and visibility of out-of-stock items, and we believe this will support structurally lower inventory over time. And finally, we are using data to build new revenue streams. We discussed in March the opportunity to offer advertising to third-party merchants through retail media. This is now live in Castorama and Brico Dépôt France, and we also initiated partnerships with CitrusAd and Unlimitail, the new European retail media joint venture between Carrefour and Publicis. We see the potential for this income stream to reach up to 3% of the group's e-commerce sales.
So we have moved very fast on AI and data, and we are excited by the progress here. This is a real demonstration of the culture and agility of Kingfisher, as well as showing how the power of the group can drive stronger results from our banners. And finally, here on slide 26, an update on the progress of our stretch trade strategy. The trade or pro market is a key one for Kingfisher. Demand from this customer segment has been a source of resilience for us in recent years. And as I've said before, expanding trade customer penetration is a significant driver of sales density and profit growth. We have already covered our international growth plans for Screwfix and in the U.K. and Ireland. Our aim is for over 1,000 stores from 884 today. Elsewhere, we are making solid progress.
At B&Q, we have opened 18 new Trade Point counters, expanding its presence to around two-thirds of the B&Q estate. Trade Point, at 20% B&Q sales, is one of our best-performing banners over the last 4 years and is targeting over GBP 1 billion of sales in the medium term from over GBP 830 million last year. During H1, we launched test of dedicated trade zones in 27 stores at Castorama Poland and Brico Dépôt France, bringing dedicated products, services, and colleagues to trade customers, and the early results in both banners are very encouraging. We're also piloting dedicated trade sales partner roles to build more personal relationships. Over time, we believe this will enable us to capture a greater share of wallet of our trade customers. We continue to leverage our strengths in OEB to develop and launch trade-focused products.
For example, our Flomasta plumbing range, which is performing well in the U.K. We are also enhancing our services to trade people, including more tool rental services, more flexible payment and finance options, and more delivery services, such as direct to site. On the digital side, we stimulated a significant increase in customer awareness of Screwfix's one-hour delivery service, following a very successful marketing campaign in the U.K. Following this, national awareness levels of our Sprint service moved from 25%-40%. We're also leveraging our focus on data to provide personalized and tailored offers to customer. And finally, we are developing our loyalty programs, TradePoint. So a 37% increase in new sign-ups in H1, and at Poland and Brico Dépôt France, we are trialing new loyalty schemes, with early results showing a significant increase in frequency of shop and average basket size.
So our trade and DIFM sales penetration at Kingfisher is already at around 50%, but there is significant runway for the trade segment, and we have made positive early steps in this journey. Turning now to slide 27, I would like to set out our four main priorities for the second half. First, we'll continue to maintain a disciplined trading, along with a competitive price index. This requires careful monitoring of market conditions and consumer sentiment, and as ever, to manage cost inflation efficiently. Two, we want to continue the strong operational momentum that we have been in the U.K. Over the last four years, our U.K. banners have acted as test cases for many of our group strategic initiatives, including marketplace, AI and data, OEB trade, e-commerce fulfillment, and also new store formats. This is clearly showing in the consistent results of B&Q, TradePoint and Screwfix.
Then three, as Bernard discussed, we are continuing to actively manage our cost across the business, ensuring alignment to the top line. This is important across the whole group, but for reasons discussed today, there will be a strong focus in Poland and France. And finally, we are focused on accelerating key elements of our strategy, which we believe will move the needle on our financial performance. And this include driving higher trade penetration, further developing our marketplace proposition, extending the rollout of Screwfix into new geographies, and accelerating retail media and the use of AI across our business. We also remain focused on structurally reducing our inventory, supported by AI and data. So while we are clear on our near-term priorities, on slide 28, I would like to remind you of the outcomes we are aiming for our investment for growth.
First and foremost, we are focused on growing sales ahead of our markets. This is through a combination of like-for-like growth, driven by our strategic areas of focus and net space growth from expanding our presence, notably in Screwfix and Castorama Poland. We believe adjusted PBT will grow faster than sales in the medium term as we continue to focus on cost productivity, driving sales benefit, and through higher margin initiatives such as marketplace and retail media. This is a business that should continue generating healthy levels of cash. We expect GBP 400 million-GBP 500 million of free cash flow next year, followed by in excess of GBP 500 million for the following years, and this will be supported by profit growth across each of our banners.
So while we'll continue to invest capital to drive our growth, we will also continue to return excess capital to shareholders, as we have shown today with our new buyback commitment. So overall, we remain very aware of near-term challenges, but also very positive on the medium to long-term outlook for home improvement growth in our markets, and we are confident in our ability to grow market share and deliver on these objectives. So now to quickly summarize on slide 29. Although in H1, we delivered a sales performance that was slightly better than expectations, this was against a backdrop of volatile and unseasonal weather and clear macroeconomic challenges in many of our markets. Highlights, including the performance of our U.K. banners, the improving volume trend in our core and big ticket categories, and the ongoing resilience of the trade segment, supported by the consumer trend of improve, not move.
Our adjusted PBT results show resilience in the U.K. and France, but challenges in Poland, which we are addressing. So to better reflect our H1 results and the trading environment in our markets, we have updated our profit guidance for this year and set four key priorities for the second half. We're investing for growth and making strong progress against our strategic priorities, and we remain very positive on the medium to long-term outlook and expect to begin our new share buyback program early next month. So thank you all for listening this morning, and Bernard and I would now be happy to answer any questions. So over to you, Maj.
Thanks very much, Thierry and Bernard. We're gonna start the Q&A from the audience here. So just give us a few seconds with the microphones. All right. All set? Okay, we're gonna start with Anne, please, JV. Thank you.
Thanks. Good morning, it's Anne Critchlow from Société Générale. I've got two questions, please. What percentage of GMV is online at B&Q these days, please, in the first half? And then secondly, on unsold seasonal stock, to what extent do you expect to sell this through at full price next year? Thanks very much.
Yeah, thank you. Thank you for your question. I think, again, the marketplace we started last year, we are gradually growing our online penetration. So past months, if you look at GMV as a percentage of B&Q online sales, we were above 30%, even some months above 33%, which is clearly ahead of our expectation. And Iberia as well, we are gradually every month improving the, the e-commerce penetration of the, of the marketplace. On inventory, I will let Bernard give you a few data, but overall we are, we are pleased with the decrease of our inventory. You know, obviously, we have inflation on prices, so we have to look at the volumes. Our volumes are down 11% year-on-year, and clearly, we have ongoing plans to continue to reduce our inventory in the coming months. I will let Bernard comment on the seasonal part.
Yeah. Yes, thank you, and just a reminder, obviously, seasonal is just a very small part of our inventory. If you look in our sales, it's, you know, 78% core big ticket, 22 seasonal, and within that, a very small part is what we call perishable. So there's the natural perishable, like horti, but the other elements, it's really we can hold it over to the next year, just as we've done in the previous year.
Can we go to Adam, please? Paul.
Thanks. Adam Cochrane, Deutsche Bank. The first question I've got is, on the chart you showed quite helpfully about consumer confidence and various bits. You talked about the French consumer confidence being at a 10-year low. The U.K. consumer confidence, as I see it, is not fantastic. How can you sort of explain the difference as to why the U.K. is performing so well, if consumer confidence is one of the sort of metrics that you're looking at to explain the weak France, but not the U.K.? Secondly, the sales in certain areas are ahead of expectations, below in others. Can you help us benchmark what you're looking at for the second half in terms of your expectations, just so we can get a gauge of how aggressive or conservative you've been in terms of your sales expectations-
Yeah
F or the second half? Thanks.
Thank you, Adam. Let me answer the first one, and I will leave Bernard for the second one. I think it's indeed striking to see U.K. versus France consumer sentiment, because when you look at the macro data, you would say, "Well, France is doing well." But the perception of the customer is very different. Let's start with France, you know. Just to give you a few anecdotes, recently, we asked a French customer in a poll, what was their perception of inflation? They say 18% on average. Well, and you have every day in the newspaper in France, the topic around food inflation and shrinkflation, you know, maybe you followed that, and discussion between Carrefour and Unilever and the French government.
So at the end, it's every day, the first topic is food inflation. You had the pension reform, the strikes, the demonstration, including early summer. You had, in fact, a worse weather in France than the U.K., so I can go into detail. It's always not very good to spend hours on the weather explanation. But in fact, it was always too cold or too hot, but it was really a horrible year for the French seasonal. You can see the seasonal sales. So today, you are in the back-to-school period. That's why we say we are seeing a slightly slower sales trend in Q3 versus Q2. That's what's on French customer mind. U.K., again, you look at all the data, Q1 versus Q2, core.
So core and big ticket, just to clarify, it's everything that is not seasonal, so we follow the business in three categories: seasonal, big ticket project, and the core. So core in the U.K., Q1 plus 1.9, Q2 plus 3.8% increase, and Q3 to date is as well very healthy. We see a very healthy order well in kitchen, bathroom in the U.K. And this survey, even though at relatively low level, clearly we see positive sign in the U.K. So I would not, you know, play the economist, and why is it so? Because you are in a better place than I do. But overall, that's what we are seeing, a very, very sharp difference between U.K. and the continent, and still for Q3 today. For the quick question, I'll leave it to Bernard.
Yes, and in terms of sales, a couple of things to comment. First is, you have seen a helpful movement Q1 to Q2, with like-for-like sales down -3.3% in Q1, then easing off to -1.2% in Q2. We've seen, you know, -2.4% in the most recent trading, so a little bit of pressure there. But what I would comment is, one is we have less seasonal in the rest of the year, and obviously, as you've seen in the numbers, that's had a big time impact on the overall like-for-like. Two, the compares become easier. Poland was, you know, last year, 25.9% like-for-like. In the second half, 2.7%, as you know, the dynamics started to change.
So that compares easier, and also in the U.K., the compare becomes slightly easier. And then what I would say is the, you know, the good trends we're seeing, both in like-for-like but also in volume, in terms of core and big ticket, and hopefully, you know, that will be helpful in H2.
Warwick, please.
Morning, Warwick Okines from BNP Paribas Exane. Just sort of following on, about the second half thoughts, and question on pricing. Is it reasonable to assume that the gap between your volume and value, of inventory at the end of the first half, that 9% is a reasonable guess for the second half inflation, or does it fade quite quickly towards the end of the second half? And perhaps you could give us some early thoughts about pricing in the next financial year.
Yeah. Thank you, Warwick. Let's inflation, pricing, let's start with inflation. The peak of inflation for us was H2 2022. We still see a meaningful inflation level in H1. We never guided on inflation, so I will not start today. You can try to guess from inventory. Just to be careful of the inventory mix versus our sales mix. But so overall, meaningful inflation in H1. We still expect inflation in H2, but at a lower level. But we still see deflation coming in. Pricing, we continue to see a very rational behavior for everyone, so that's good. We have some of the pricing power in many of our market, but in no market, including Poland, we have seen competitors being irrational on prices. What we have seen is clearance.
We have seen some competitor having too much stock, and but that's pretty rational. You can't, you can't blame that as irrational. So we have seen more clearance in H1. We have seen Leroy Merlin, Leroy in Poland, being very active in H1 to get back market share on their promo. While we have we have keep very disciplined promo plan in Poland in H1. We had our plan, we stick to our plan. So that's why we know we... for, for us, it's very important to keep good price index. We believe market will stay rational looking forwards. And at the same time, to keep a relatively disciplined trading, you know, not to get crazy on promo. We have our plan, we prepare ourself, and we stick to it, but we want to keep very good price index.
Maybe just to have a-
Good
A technical note on the inventory. There's, you know, the quick math indeed says value down, volume down, 1 minus 2, the other minus 11, inflation must be 9%. But what you're not taking into account, there's also a mix effect in terms of ranging deal versus stock. So the actual inflation in stock is lower than that number. And also the CPI, we've seen falling quite, you know, over the period of H1. So that will also have a further impact on lowering CPI in H2.
We go to Richard next, please. Next to Warwick.
Thank you.
Thank you. Morning. Yeah, Richard Chamberlain, RBC.
Hi.
Just linked to Warwick's question, Thierry, I just wondered if I could ask about sort of price perception and marketplace. I wondered if you think the marketplace in the U.K. has actually improved the price perception, because you've got different levels of price point, obviously much wider range. And could that also be the case when that's rolled out to other markets? And then I just also wanted to ask about Screwfix France. It sounds like you've just cut back your planned number of openings a little bit for this year. But, I mean, how does that affect your longer-term view of the potential for Screwfix i n France? Thanks.
Thank you, Richard. I think first on marketplace, again, to be very honest, we don't see that as a clear point of improving our price image. We don't see that as a strong point today. It's really choice. You know, you start with your search on Google, you have more choice. We are creating more traffic, and that's benefiting our third-party team and as well, our own business online. So today, we are really pleased with, you know, traffic generation, conversion, how much this flows to 3P , 1P. Price is okay, but I would not say this is a key driver of the traffic. It's really choice, quality of the range, et cetera.
On Screwfix France, to be fair, again, I would not take this 25, 20 store as a big thing. You know, we, 20 is still a very big number. You know, for years in the U.K., we were opening 50 stores. And I would not comment too much on competitors in France and elsewhere, but it's 20 is a very strong number. It's fine-tuning. We have decided to slightly slow down to focus on existing store sales. That's, that's not... there is no big thing behind that. And again, very pleased with, let's say, the industrial KPI of Screwfix France that are key, you know. So first is the repeat of order. You recruit trade, what is a repeat? That's critical.
We are watching that every week with, with John and the French team. Price positioning versus competitor, versus Amazon, ability to deliver on time, quality of the range, et cetera. So all those KPI are right. What I said in March is the only thing we don't know is you need a bit of time to check the maturation of the store sales is in line with your expectation. Today is really a few months, all according to plan, but we need more time to say, "Yes, that's a big success, and we go for the 600.
Sorry, I've been neglecting the back of the room. Were there any hands up at the back of the room at all, or are we all good? Yeah, George. Oh, sorry, Saranja first. Sorry.
Sure. Ami Galla from Citi.
Okay, sorry.
I'll just ask two questions.
Thank you, Ami.
One on Poland. Can you give us some color on the disruption that you experienced in Poland because of the rollout of digital stack that you mentioned in your release? How material was that on numbers, and is that behind us, really? The second one, the Screwfix expansion online, is there a cost number associated to that? And, you know, medium term, what is the ambition and what is the sort of fulfillment cost associated with that, that we need to think about, going forward?
Yeah, thank you for your two questions. You're right to spot that we have changed our technology in Poland just between Q1 and Q2. But clearly, you know, it, I would be happy if it was the reason of Poland issues. Unfortunately, yes, we have been working on that, but clearly, the market environment and the consumer sentiment was the big things. To be fair, I think the Polish team did all the right thing. You know, they are gaining share over two years. We have a great price index. We are managing our costs. We're still opening stores. We are improving our online operation. There is nothing much you can say. We were expecting a much better Q2.
You know, when we looked at last year, Q1, we did +55, Q2 last year, we did +9. Looking at the pace, you know, of post-war impact, boycott of our competitor, we would have expected a better Q2 looking at last year. It didn't happen, but it's not really the link to our digital initiatives. Screwfix Online, I think two things: we really believe that, you know, for this brand, for the quality of the model, we have a lot of opportunities across Europe. We believe France is our first target. We have been very successful, you see, in Ireland by starting online and then gradually when we're already opening the first store. We are getting ready, you know, in Europe, we are establishing the brand in more countries.
We have now a distribution center in France, in the European Union, so we can deliver easily, and let's see in the future where it goes. I've always said that the countries where Kingfisher has a presence are easier platform for Screwfix, and we see that today in France by supporting the Screwfix France. But, Screwfix Online, let's see where it goes. We are very excited by this opportunity. Do you want to add anything, Bernard, or?
No, I mean, just to say, if you look at the UK Screwfix model, it's already, you know, mainly online, nearly 60%. And we're able to, you know, manage that very effectively and successfully. It's one of our, you know, most profitable banners. So we're looking to replicate that successful model, you know, in France, also with stores or through an e-commerce model in the rest of Europe to start off with.
Over to George.
Thanks. Morning, George Pilakoutas from Numis. First one, a quick one for Bernard. Can you just quantify the benefit to the U.K. gross margin from the e-commerce marketplace? And underlying, would U.K. gross margins be therefore more similar to France at down 30? So just trying to get a feel for those numbers. Second one is then on France. The Banque de France data's lost a bit of relevance this year. So I was just wondering if you could give us a bit of a sense on where you think French market share trends have performed i n the first half. And then a slight extension of that is just an updated thought on the French business. A lot of self-help has been done since you joined the business on pricing, kind of back office supply chain. Yeah, it still feels the French business is still in a slightly challenged place, and so I guess perhaps updated thoughts on how does that French business improve from here?
Thank you. Maybe you want Bernard to take the first one on margin.
Yeah, sure. On the U.K. we're very happy with the contribution of marketplace. They, you know, have a good take rate, they're growing. That had a positive impact. The offsets were a little bit of stock provision and clearance, so yes, the gross margin would not have been flat, would be slightly weaker, but, you know, still in an overall good place.
I don't know if you noticed, but we had planned take rates between 10%-15%, and it's really right there, so we are again very, very happy with the first months of operation for the take rates. Banque de France, again, clearly, we are not very comfortable with the methodology since September last year. I think there have been good progress recently in the clarification of the methodology, so I hope we'll have good news with the data and the participation of Kingfisher in the future to Banque de France. Our views is that Castorama is the Castorama like-for-like is in line or slightly better than the market, so you would see a slight difference versus Banque de France, and Brico is below.
But clearly, therefore, you see, you see a difference between U.K .and France in the market, huh? France base, you know, the foundation of the business now very healthy. Availability, supply chain, price index, the trading activities we are seeing in our businesses, the morale of the team, you know, all that is very strong. Therefore, we are really on our key strategic priorities, and so, Castorama is really profitability. We said that in March. While Brico is above the average of the group, Castorama is not, so we have a big profitability plan for Castorama. We believe that Castorama, we have a big plan on e-commerce, and trade as well.
Brico, we should leverage our discounter DNA, and we have opened our first 1,000 sq m Brico Dépôt in a relatively small city. We are looking at that with a lot of care because we feel it could be a big thing for Brico in the future. Brico has very strong price index. We have been, to be fair, struggling with a few decisions, but you know, I would not blame the team. We want to be agile. We want to test things, so they reallocated some of their advertising spending to digital. It was very good for digital, but we lost too much of store traffic. We have corrected that. Strong fundamental, really Castorama in a good place because we see resilient H1 and in line or better than the market, really focused on profit.
Brico, a bit more weaker for H1, correcting a few decision, and it should be a very good platform for the future and with discounts and new store format.
All right. Any more questions from the floor before we go to the phones? That's good to hear. So I'm gonna ask Irene on the phones whether we've got any questions, please.
Thank you, Maj. We will now begin questions from the phone line. To ask a question on the phone line, please signal by pressing star then one on your telephone keypad. We will pause for a moment to assemble the queue. We have a question from Georgina Johanan of JP Morgan. Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning. I've got two questions, please. Appreciate it's early days, but the first one was just on the outlook for next year. I think ahead of today's event, this was building in some top-line growth and almost on the bottom line. It feels with some of your comments on the uncertainty around the French outlook and, of course, the Polish backdrop, that that might be more difficult to achieve. Just your thoughts on that would be appreciated, please. And then my second question was just around the UK cost base, obviously up 9% or so year-on-year.
I appreciate there'll be some energy pressures that ease in the second half, but just given the uncertainty on the U.K. backdrop, like, roughly like, as a rule of thumb, how much of that cost base now should we actually be thinking about being variable with sales? Like, how should we be thinking about the operational gearing in, in the U.K. business at the moment, please? Thank you.
Thank you, Georgina. Let's start, the first, and I think I will let Bernard comment on the-- on your second question. Broadly, we feel it's a bit early for us to comment, to explicitly to 2024. The two things I would say today is, we still see some inflation in 2024, so that's an important thing to note. We'll have a different dynamic by categories. Probably some categories will see deflation, but overall, our view is that we'll continue to see inflation in 2024. And two, we expect the market to stay very, very disciplined and very rational. You know, the past three years, with different environment, we always seen competitors being very rational and ourself, and that's what we'd expect for 2024, huh.
Then on the cost dynamic, you know, you could guess the wages and the energy dynamic for 2024 will be relatively clear. But for us, the key thing is we still see some inflation, and we expect the market to be rational.
Yes, and on the U.K. inflation or operating cost movement, you know, as we said, U.K. is one of the, with the two banners have grown overall sales up, you know, 3.8%, like-for-like 1.7%. So obviously, that then also factors into your operating cost. Those were up 8.9%. If you look at those components, part of it is obviously inflation, staff inflation being the main one, but also energy inflation, which, as Thierry said, will ease in H2 because the compare becomes easier. But there's also cost, for example, with the, you know, the 59 new net new store openings that we have year-over-year, and a little bit more of tech spend.
So I think you should look at that 8.9% in the combination of growing banners, obviously inflation, but also investment in in growth. And then, as we've shown in banners like France and others, there is an ability to flex cost. They, you know, basically, the measures that Thierry outlined for the, for Poland would also apply to the U.K. And if you look at our staffing numbers, we are looking at that and where we can, for flexing that down. But it's very difficult to pin yourself down to a number because there are, you know, there are a number of variables that factor in, you know, in terms of what's the overall growth environment, how much are you investing in growth. But there is an opportunity to flex if we need to.
Any other questions from the phone?
Thank you very much.
You're welcome.
There are no further questions on the conference line. I will now hand back over to Maj.
Thanks, Irene. Any final questions from the floor here at all?
At the back.
Got Izabel at the back.
Hello, it's Izabel from Morgan Stanley. I had two questions. The first one is on Poland. I wanted to get your thoughts around the margin into next year, because the government recently announced a 20% minimum wage hike. So I was wondering how much of that is already in your Polish cost base, or should we expect further headwinds on the margin from that into next year? And then my second question is just to go back to the change in the updated guidance. Could you give us a few more details of exactly why you changed the guidance? I appreciate some of it already came through in the first half, but was it the sales? Was it the gross margin? It sounds like the costs, you have some flex there, but it will be good to get a breakout.
Thank you, Izabel, for the two questions. I speak first about Poland. Yes, you're right to say the minimum salary has been strongly, if I remember well, we had January, and then we have April or May 2023. So that's partially reflected in our wages, and we had in Poland wages increase in H1. We are very cautious now on H2, so we are really cautious on the wages increasing in H2, and let's see where we go for 2024. But the minimum salary increase are already reflected in H1 in Poland. So Bernard, the outlook at, at-
Yeah. And then in terms of the, the guidance, you, you're right, we, we updated that. Well, let's first look at H1, and if we look at... y ou know, one of the big factors was, was the weaker Poland, which was a combination of sales, especially June, July, and then that seeped in also into the margin with, you know, a little bit more promo, a little bit more clearance. Now obviously, we have to see the dynamic in H2, but we factored that in as we looked at our guidance. And then, as you will be able to read, given the market environment in France, it's slightly weaker maybe than we would have wished for. You know, factoring those two things, while the U.K. maintains a positive momentum, we said we need to adjust the, the guidance for the full year.
So taking into account what we missed in H1, and second, these dynamics for H2.
John, wake up.
And maybe just to add one other point, Izabel, just on the minimum wage point, just because I had the benefit of talking to our HR officer last week on it. We tend to pay above the retail benchmark in Poland, so most of the top retailers in Poland will pay top quartile. So we look at that benchmark, which tends to be actually quite significantly above the minimum wage requirements, which captures then the next few minimum wage increases that you get. So that, I think, curtails the impacts that you're talking about. It's very standard for the top retailers.
Maybe, well, we're because I'm sure it's a topic people are thinking through and thinking about H2, maybe to say a little bit something about the comps, which obviously are. If you look at the, you know, the delta versus the prior year in H1, which was around 9.29%, and then you can do the math, it's softer in H2. But there are some components feeding into that, which probably is important to note. One, the overall comp performance is easier in H2, as I said, for Poland, and also a little bit for the UK. Two, we will see an easing of inflation. So for example, the energy inflation is really in H1. If I look at H2, energy costs should be roughly the same across all the banners year-over-year.
We've got less seasonal weight, so that, you know, was unhelpful in H1. You know, won't have that drag in H2. And we had a number of one-offs that occurred, you know, the ineffective hedges, some of the things with insurance on the central cost, which will not recur. And I think all those factor in, into compare that we believe should be easier in the second half, in addition, of course, to the fact that we're taking, you know, and accelerating our actions, especially in Poland, to make sure that we improve the performance there.
Thank you, Bernard.
Very good. That's a wrap. Thierry, any closing remarks from you?
No. Again, very, very happy to see all of you, and happy to update on our progress, and looking forward to meet you very soon or during meeting or in one-to-one. Thank you. Have a good day.