Q&A: B&Q commercial director Paul White on the new Labour government, good business and making DIY greener

You’ve been at Kingfisher since the start of your career, but how has your current role changed since you started it in 2017?

“We’ve moved accountability around. At one point I had supply chain within my remit but we decided that we wanted a real focus around stock availability and fulfillment in our strategy.

“We’re at our best when we operate as experts and I’m not an expert in supply chain. Yes, I can run the people and keep them motivated, but I’m not probably going to add much to what they do technically. So, over time, we’ve reiterated the board accordingly. We’ve brought in digital, customer and IT expertise over the last couple of years, and then we built the commercial team out again and have adapted over time as the needs of the business changed. Between 2016 and 2020, we didn’t have any buyers at B&Q because product was being managed in Kingfisher. We brought them all back in 2020 and 2021 and I’ve spent the last number of years upskilling, reskilling, rehiring and finding the best-in-market talents that we can strive for. 

“It’s important because new people challenge our status quo as an organisation. One of the challenges for me, having been here for so long, is there’s a chance that a bit of Stockholm syndrome can kick in, so I’m constantly looking for people who can keep me fresh, who can challenge my thinking and can ultimately do things that are harder for our competitors.”

You have a new director of responsible business reporting to you, tell us about that

“Joanna Gluzman is a brand new appointment. We’ve had the role for a couple of years but we’ve had generalist directors leading it, not expertise. So we went out and found someone who we think can help us with our thought leadership and action planning 

“It was a very conscious move to have her report to the commercial director. A lot of sustainability and responsible business roles are part of marketing or HR. But we met with Blackrock a few years ago as part of a board study and we were talking to them about sustainability and the importance of businesses having good responsible business, in their core DNA as a way of accessing funds in the future.

“We asked them: ‘How do you know if a business takes sustainability seriously?’ They said they look at where they’ve placed it in the organisation. If they’ve placed stainability with a product team, I get confidence that it’s going to be catered to.”

You’ve been working on a lot of sustainable initiatives, with peat-free plants, recycling schemes and greener product ranges to name a few, but do you think you’re doing the best possible job of communicating it to consumers? 

“No, I don’t. Part of the reason for bringing Joanna in is that her background is not just in sustainability but in corporate and customer comms. We have something called the Build a Life project, which is a wrapper for all things responsible business, but we’ve used it more internally than externally.

“A bit of B&Q’s culture is quite humble, we’re not very good at publicising some of what we’re doing, or what we think about sustainability. We do intend to do more customer-facing comms to help customers make a better choice.

“For example, when you’re standing in front of the taps fixture some will use three times the amount of water than other taps but you’re not going to know that unless we communicate it. We do intend to build more communication over time but it won’t be a switch on, it will build gradually.

“Over the last few months, the perception of B&Q as a sustainable retailer has improved and we have been making gentle steps but we haven’t done anything significant. It’ll be interesting what happens when we do more because we’re coming up with stories that resonate with consumers and, at the moment, sustainability isn’t a key choice factor for consumers.”

If it’s not key, then why do it?

“Because why not do it? You’ve got all sorts of reasons to do it. I could talk about the tree-hugging stuff but I don’t think that’s relevant, but there is a point around responsible business being good business and it’s one reason why I’ve been at B&Q for a while – I think it’s a really good business. I think it genuinely tries hard to do good things for our communities, our people and the environment. We can continue with that ethos and we can take our supply base with us. What we’re striving for with our peat-free plant suppliers might seem like a small change but they can change the market, then change Europe and that can change them globally.”

How do you anticipate what’s going to be next when it comes to sustainability legislation? 

“We’re fortunate that we have a lot of very big brains and Kingfisher who work on government affairs, sustainability and corporate governance, so we’re heavily guided by them in terms of what they think our investors will want, what they think will be coming down the tracks over time and then we build out our plans based on that. We try not to get caught out and instead stay ahead of it. Where there are better products we can sell we will move to them, such as electric and battery power for lawnmowers.

“Because B&Q is the biggest banner in Kingfisher, we often go first on the more difficult initiatives because once we’ve done something the other banners follow. A good example is B&Q is significantly ahead of where Kingfisher wanted us to be on wood and paper, which will be nearly 100% sustainably sourced from this year. We’re working with vendors, like Metsa, who use regenerative forestry methods. We often go first on the more difficult initiatives because once we’ve done something the other banners follow up.”

There is a new Labour government in power, what does that mean for B&Q?

“Number one: it’s had a positive impact for stability, so from a consumer point of view that’s always going to help. 

“Number two: if they’re serious about building lots of new houses, I think that comes with an opportunity for us because over time people will move into those houses so hopefully the housing market will get moving again but also people often redecorate when they move into a new house.

“The other interesting thing is that we may be able to work with the government to make sure the houses are built properly in the initial instance. Thinking about community, biodiversity, where they’re built, how they’re built, how they’re powered, if are they going to have solar on the roof – all that kind of stuff. So we could probably take that on and advise on that.”

Of the sustainable and responsible business initiatives you’ve implemented so far, what are you most proud of?

“I recently joined the B&Q Foundation as a trustee. We ran our supplier conference and raised half a million pounds for that foundation from our vendor base, so I’m proud of that. 

“More broadly, the progress that we’ve made with our plan to tackle Scope 3 carbon emissions is probably the area that I’m most satisfied with. We’ve got an awful lot more to do and now that we’ve built the plan we can push much harder at a higher level with strategic intent. We’re working on the role B&Q plays for you during the course of your life as a homeowner and making the UK housing stock better over the next couple of decades is very rich territory for us.

“We’re tackling fairly significant issues like peat, nasty chemicals in paint, petrol in garden machinery – which are all big things for us to take on – and there are a lot of hard decisions still to come. Do I know exactly how we’re going to tackle each of them yet? Definitely not. But are we going to try and lead customers and the rest of the market? Yes, we will.”