UK grocery giant Morrisons names former Kingfisher executive Mohsen Ghasempour as Chief AI Officer. Morrisons has appointed Dr Mohsen Ghasempour as Chief AI Officer, a newly created role that will see him establish a central data science and AI function for the UK grocery retailer. He joins from Kingfisher, where he had served as Chief AI Officer since March 2024 following more than two years as Group AI Director. He will take overall responsibility for data and AI strategy, with a remit spanning customer growth, colleague empowerment, operational efficiency, manufacturing excellence and commercial excellence. He will report directly to Morrisons CEO Rami Baitiéh when he takes up the role on 1st October. "Creation of this new role reflects our commitment to ensuring Morrisons is embracing the opportunities in data and AI at pace, with focus and in the right way," says Baitiéh. "Mohsen is a recognised expert in the field with hands on experience of unlocking the potential of technology to deliver innovative new solutions that serve customers, empower colleagues and deliver measurable business impact." Ghasempour saus: "I'm excited about joining Morrisons and building the team that will help the business make effective and responsible use of AI in the years ahead, to deliver real benefits for customers and colleagues." Kingfisher Kingfisher Group, which owns B&Q and Screwfix in the UK and Castorama and Brico Depot in France and other markets, is using AI enabled productivity tools, including Fabric, to accelerate content creation, enhance SEO and improve conversion. The FTSE 100 home improvement retailer lifted the lid this week on its AI and other tech initiatives as it raised its profit target despite seeing a heatwave driven drop off in sales at B&Q. It now expects to make a pre-tax profit of between £595 million and £635 million, having previously guided between £565 million and £625 million. Last year, it posted a £560 million profit. Other highlights from its full year profit guidance and HY26/27 results include: group e-commerce sales reached 22% penetration. Group app sales now account for 29% of e-commerce sales, with app customers spending approximately 14% more than non-app users. AI driven personalisation increased +16% generating approximately £100 million of sales, showing, Kingfisher claims, the growing value of its data and digital capabilities. Click & Collect sales were up +9% and home delivery sales +15%, supported by store-based fulfilment network and marketplace growth. Screwfix Sprint (20 min delivery) was up +50% reflecting the growing demand for rapid fulfilment, particularly in Kingfisher's City stores. Marketplace GMV rose +42% to £372 million, representing 18% of e-commerce sales. There has been investment in platform enhancements including Buybox, which helps customers find the best offer from multiple vendors by balancing price, merchant performance and delivery speed. B&Q, meanwhile, continued to stump up cash for search and navigation capabilities, supporting improvements in online traffic and conversion. Natural language search is planned for implementation at B&Q in H2. The next phase of digital commerce will also include agent enabled shopping experiences. 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards The awards are now open for entries and celebrate global retail technology innovation in a fast moving omnichannel world. Its winners will be revealed at the 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards Ceremony, taking place at The HAC in Central London on Wednesday, 4th November. Its 2025 hall of fame entrants were revealed during a sold out event which took place at The HAC on 16th October and consisted of a drinks reception, three course meal, and awards ceremony presided over by award winning comedian, actress and writer Tiff Stevenson. In his welcome speech, Scott Thompson, Founder and Editor, RTIH, said: "This is the awards' fifth year as a physical event. We started off with just 30 people at the South Place Hotel not far from here, then moved to London Bridge Hotel, then The Barbican, and last year RIBA's HQ in the West End." "But I'm conscious of the fact that, to quote the legend that is Taylor Swift, You're only as hot as your last hit, baby. So, this year we've moved to our biggest venue yet, and also pulled in our largest number of entries to date and broken attendance records." He added: "This year's submissions have without doubt been our best yet. To quote one of the judges: The examples of innovative developments across both traditional and digital retail spaces were truly remarkable." Congratulations to its winners, and a big thank you to its sponsors, judging panel, the legend that is Tiff Stevenson, and all those who attended its 2025 gathering.

Kingfisher lifts full-year guidance after first-half profit rise. Statutory pre-tax profit was £400m, up 18.4%, while adjusted pre-tax profit increased 9.9% year-on-year to £404m. UK-based Kingfisher has raised its full-year 2026/2027 (FY26/27) guidance after statutory post-tax profit climbed 22.6% to £290m ($385.7m) for the six months to 31 July 2026. The London-listed home improvement retailer, which owns B&Q, Screwfix, Castorama and Brico Dépôt, said statutory sales increased 0.8% to £6.86bn. Statutory pre-tax profit was £400m, up 18.4%, while adjusted pre-tax profit increased 9.9% year-on-year to £404m. Operating profit rose 17.6% to £449m. Gross margin expanded by 70 basis points to 38.4%. The company said this reflected buying and sourcing scale, expansion in marketplace and retail media, and favourable exchange rates. These factors were partly offset by higher freight costs and a greater share of trade sales. The first-half results also included a one-off £14m UK business rates refund. Excluding this item, adjusted pre-tax profit growth was 6.1%. Adjusted basic earnings per share increased 16.1% to 17.8p, which the company said was due to profit growth and its ongoing share buyback programme. By region, UK and Ireland retail profit rose 5% to £361m. In France, retail profit increased 2.9% to £74m, while Poland posted retail profit growth of 17.4% to £60m. During the period, Kingfisher opened nine new stores, taking its total estate to 1,700 stores. It plans to open 30 new stores over the full year. For FY26/27, the company now expects adjusted pre-tax profit of £595m-£635m, compared with its earlier guidance of £565m-£625m. It also raised free cash flow guidance to £480m-£520m from £450m-£510m. Kingfisher CEO Thierry Garnier said: "Retail Insight Network is building a stronger, more resilient Kingfisher, with its strategic priorities creating new growth opportunities and strong financial discipline supporting performance across the business. "While the consumer environment remains mixed, our consistent delivery, strategic progress and opportunities ahead give us the confidence to upgrade our guidance." Give your business an edge with its leading industry insights.