THE boss of Britain's biggest DIY chain Kingfisher is to step down after seven years. Sir Ian Cheshire, who runs the B&Q and Screwfix owners is to be replaced by the boss of the company's French arm Castorama. Veronique Laury, who has worked at Kingfisher for 11 years, takes over as chief executive at the end of January. The management change was announced as Kingfisher posted flat half-year profits of £364 million on sales of £5.77 billion in the six months to August 2. The performance was affected by the slowing economy and housing market in France, although in Britain and Ireland conditions were more favourable as like-for-like sales rose 4.4 per cent and retail profit lifted 17.7 per cent to £166m. Kingfisher is Europe's leading home improvement retail group.