Rewiring Retail: How Kingfisher Is Building Smarter, Faster, and More Inclusive Tech

Retail’s digital revolution isn’t slowing down, but for legacy giants like Kingfisher PLC — the £13B parent company behind B&Q, Screwfix, Castorama, and Brico Dépôt — transformation looks less like a sprint and more like open-heart surgery. Under the leadership of Christopher Blatchford, the company’s Global CTO, Kingfisher is showing what it takes to evolve a deeply complex organization without breaking what already works. His approach? Modularity over monoliths, pragmatism over hype.

This modular philosophy extends far beyond IT architecture. “The best defense against the pace of tech change is modularity,” says Blatchford. Rather than debating whether to build or buy, Kingfisher is asking a sharper question: Where do we differentiate? Commodity tech — mobile app frameworks, basic search — can be outsourced. But capabilities like AI-powered pricing models, supply chain visibility algorithms, and marketplace platforms are strategic. B&Q’s marketplace, now with over 2 million SKUs, has quickly become one of Europe’s most robust DIY offerings — built in record time and at massive scale.