Over 1,400 Kingfisher employees are set to share in the maturity of two ShareSave schemes, representing a total collective gain of £9.7 million.
The individual three and five year schemes for B&Q and Screwfix employees, where they can pay in anything from £5 to £250 a month, will see store and head office-based colleagues receiving between £181 and £41,011 each, based on the three and five year plans respectively, their position within the company and how much they have paid in.

Those who joined the 2008 five year plan made an average gain of £16,829 and those in the 2010 three year plan made an average gain of £2,199, based on the closing share price of 375.9p on November 29, 2013.

The majority of those receiving the windfall are 1,278 of the 1,426 B&Q colleagues, who will share a combined gain of £8.3 million (based on the 375.9p share price). Around 100 employees from Screwfix will also benefit as well.

Kingfisher group chief executive Ian Cheshire said: "At Kingfisher we believe that the colleagues who contribute to the long-term success of the company should also share in the rewards. Ours is a people business and it is the hard work of our staff that has delivered this performance, in difficult economic conditions. I am delighted that they are sharing in the benefits with this pre-Christmas windfall."

This news follows the Q3 results posted by Kingfisher last week, which saw UK and Ireland total sales increase by 3.7% and profit by 8.3%. Over the course of the five year scheme, Kingfisher's adjusted pre-tax profit rose from £357 million to £715 million and from £547 million to £715 million during the course of the three year programme. From 2008 to 2013 Kingfisher's stock market value has risen from £2.6 to £8.9 billion, with the share price rising accordingly.