Peter Jackson, Kingfisher's chairman, gave his new chief executive a ringing endorsement yesterday - only to be asked by an analyst why someone else had not been given the job. The reaction summed up the lukewarm reception to Ian Cheshire's first presentation in the City as he repeated his ambition to achieve a big improvement in performance, but omitted detail on how he intends to achieve it.

“There was little meat in the sandwich,” one analyst said.

Analysts are agreed over the extent of the challenge that lies ahead as the new team tries to revive the Kingfisher empire.

The shares have fallen more than 50 per cent in the past year and there is a widespread belief that under Gerry Murphy, Mr Cheshire's predecessor, Kingfisher lost its way in a worldwide land grab and took its eye off the ball in the UK, where B&Q began to look neglected.

It is Mr Cheshire's performance in reviving the fortunes of B&Q's UK stores over the past year that convinced Mr Jackson that he could repeat the trick as chief executive.

B&Q has just undergone one of its biggest range-review and store- revamp programmes and there are signs it is beginning to pay off. Like-for-like sales in the past year were the best since 2005, although with a marginal growth rate of 0.6 per cent.

While he could not promise “an overnight fix”, Mr Cheshire said yesterday that he was confident Kingfisher could produce far better results by becoming more tightly focused.

With the promise of more detail on the strategy to come, and possible disposals, such as Kingfisher's stake in Hornbach, the German DIY retailer, he could have the last laugh.

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