The man behind a 16-fold rise in Kingfisher's international profits was named today as the retail group's new chief executive, replacing Gerry Murphy.

Ian Cheshire, who at present is chief executive of Kingfisher's biggest unit, B&Q UK, next week takes over from Mr Murphy, whose departure was announced in November after five years at the helm.

Mr Cheshire, who was seen as the leading internal candidate, is best known for sharpening up Kingfisher's hotchpotch of international businesses, boosting profits from £5 million to £80 million in the three years to 2005.

The 48-year-old joined Kingfisher in 1998 and has been a main board director since 2000.

He has further listed company experience as a non-executive director of Bradford & Bingley.

At Kingfisher he also developed the online offering for B&Q, Comet and Woolworths, which was then part of the group.

Most recently, he is seen as having steadied B&Q UK in very tough trading conditions for home improvement retailers.

He joined from Sears, where he was group commercial director.

Peter Jackson, the Kingfisher chairman, said that the appointment followed a rigorous review of internal and external candidates.

Mr Cheshire takes over at a grim time for Kingfisher. The shares, down 0.8p to 141.8p this morning, have halved in the past ten months on the back of fears that the UK housing downturn could exacerbate poor trading conditions in its home market, while growth has stalled in once-booming overseas markets such as China.

Rumours of a dividend cut have plagued the company, although speculation that Kingfisher could face a break-up bid has put a floor under the price.

Mr Cheshire promised today to "move at pace" to tighten cost control and make sure that cash and capital were harnessed more productively.

The search for his successor to run B&Q UK begins immediately.

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