Kingfisher hires Hymans Robertson as pensions adviser

The trustee of the Kingfisher Pension Scheme has appointed consulting firm Hymans Robertson as its scheme actuary and adviser.

Kingfisher is one of Europe’s largest home improvement retailers, and is the parent company of among others B&Q and Screwfix. The firm owns the ‘Kingfisher Pension Scheme’, which with assets of £2.8 billion, is one of UK's largest defined benefit (DB) pension schemes.

Last year the management of the trustee decided to appoint a new actuary and adviser to its pension scheme. “Ultimately we were looking for two things: fresh ideas and engaging advice,” explains Dermot Courtier, Secretary to the trustee. The firm launched a competitive tender process, and following a due diligence on four separate firms, the trustee chose for the services of Hymans Robertson, a consultancy with four offices in the United Kingdom. “Hymans Robertson's focus was on increasing our chances of success and reducing risk against our long term goals. Their foundation for doing this is a clear focus on improving the accuracy of our scheme's anticipated pension payments. This really resonated with the trustee board. The approach was simple, yet made uncommonly good sense," comments Clive Gilchrist, chair of the trustee.

Crawford Taylor, partner at Hymans Robertson, says his firm is “delighted” to partner with the trustee on realising the long term benefits captured in the business case, which runs to 2030. “Our focus will be on actively improving their chances of achieving this long term goal, capturing opportunities along the way, whilst also looking to build in shock absorbers to protect against adverse events."