From spreadsheet to software for effective IFRS 16 reporting

Kingfisher plc is an international home improvement company with over 1,300 stores in nine countries across Europe, Russia and Turkey, supported by a team of over 77,000 colleagues. They operate under retail brands including B&Q, Castorama, Brico Dépôt, Screwfix and Koçtaş.

Business Challenge

Across its brands, Kingfisher has embarked on a unification programme to consolidate its product range and reduce its cost base. That project required the company to take a fresh look at how it uses technology to manage various aspects of its business – including its lease accounting processes. With the digital transformation project under way, then came the requirement to transition to the new IFRS 16 accounting standards and recognise lease commitments on the company balance sheet. It soon became clear that existing manual methods and reliance on a cumbersome spreadsheet would be inefficient and risk inaccuracies, so Kingfisher began searching the market for a software-based IFRS 16 calculation tool.

Solution

With IFRS 16 representing a long-term and significant shift in the way lease accounting happens, Kingfisher was committed to properly addressing and resourcing their new way of reporting. Following a rigorous procurement process, they decided to implement MRI Horizon CRE for its powerful IFRS 16 functionality. The Kingfisher team was impressed with the value proposition and the consultative nature of the engagements – working closely and interacting with the MRI team throughout. They also sought opinions from other finance leaders at fellow retail organisations using the Horizon CRE solution, gaining confidence that the application is proven in the sector.

The impact of IFRS 16 is massive, and the volume of leases we manage required a strategic and comprehensive approach. Horizon CRE ticked all the boxes we were looking for, and helped us get ahead of the curve.

Nick Wilding, Group Finance Systems Manager
Kingfisher plc

Business Impact

Kingfisher is now relying on Horizon CRE for IFRS 16 reporting across its group, and is utilising the solution to quickly, efficiently and accurately demonstrate the impact of leases on its financial performance.

Technology partnership
Kingfisher gave the green light on Horizon CRE six months before it needed to report on the new standards, and MRI was able to consistently support tight deadlines and call on experience gained from helping hundreds of retail brands transition to IFRS 16.

Efficiency
As a SaaS-based application, Horizon CRE was implemented quickly and required limited IT effort on the client side to get out of the ground. It is easy to use and agile – but still an enterprise-grade platform that supports Kingfisher’s large portfolio and multi-region requirements.

Visibility
The Kingfisher finance team is able to look at detailed information on a lease in one software application and run reports – a process that previously required great effort and manual work in Excel. Horizon CRE is also enabling much quicker calculation of the group impact of leases, and can be relied on to run reports that give auditors easy access to the information they need.

Scalability and integration
Having initially adopted the solution for IFRS 16 calculations on property leases, Kingfisher is now exploring the potential benefits of Horizon CRE across other operational aspects of its business. MRI’s commitment to flexibility and integration provides a platform for the team to upgrade or add new components as and when needed – discussed and executed as part of an ongoing and collaborative business partnership.