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Screwfix has got together with publisher Collins to help you sort out your DIY woes. It’s published a series of how-to videos to promote the publication of The Complete DIY Manual and to help you tackle some common jobs around the house.

Below is a tutorial on hanging shelves, but you can view a whole range of other topics including draught-proofing windows, banishing floorboard creaks and repairing damaged plasterboard. View the whole set here. You can also follow that link to win a copy of the manual – competition ends on March 30.

Click here to view shelving products at Screwfix.

One of the UK’s largest DIY businesses has appointed a new boss – and it’s someone close to home.

Kingfisher Plc, the DIY giant that owns B&Q, Screwfix and Trade Depot, has appointed Ian Cheshire as its chief executive officer.

Formerly the chief Executive of B&Q, he starts his new job with its parent company today.

This follows the announcement on November 1 2007 that Gerry Murphy was to stand down after five years in the job.

The new CEO’s job will include the task of reversing a sales decline at B&Q, currently the UK’s largest home improvements chain.

Since he took the reins at the company, he has instigated big changes there.

Kingfisher says that a third of B&Q’s large stores are now trading successfully in a modern format and more than 60 per cent of product ranges have been renewed.

It says Mr Cheshire “will continue to work closely with the B&Q management team to ensure the momentum behind its renewal programme continues.”

The company has now started a search for a new managing director for that company.

We all like things to stay familiar – which has a lot to do with the success of the big High Street DIY chains.

Go into a store and you’ll find exactly what you’re used to, whether you’re in Aberdeen or Ashby de la Zouch, and often in approximately the same position.

But it’s looking like we may have to get used to a few changes.

According to this business article in the American publication Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the UK DIY market could be in for a degree of consolidation.

It is predicting that we could see the break-up of the powerful Kingfisher group, and B&Q being taken over by the major US chain Home Depot:

British chain could open door for Home Depot

Only five years ago, B&Q — the Home Depot of Britain — was riding high in a booming do-it-yourself market. With new chief executive Gerry Murphy at the helm of parent company Kingfisher, the B&Q chain’s profits were buoyed by a nation hooked on home makeover TV shows.

But after two years of decline in Britain’s troubled DIY market, Murphy is due to step down in February, and some analysts say the move could set the stage for an acquisition by Atlanta-based Home Depot, sending it into Europe for the first time.

The analysts believe that with Murphy gone, the Kingfisher group could break up, spinning off the core B&Q business and the chain’s operations in Asia and Russia, the Castorama DIY business in France, and a 21 percent stake in Hornbach, the leading DIY business in Germany.

Thanks to a slumping U.S. housing market, international operations have become key to Home Depot’s growth. Read full article here…