Argos logo, from January 2010 |
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| Type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Retailer |
| Founded | 1973 |
| Headquarters | Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England |
| Key people | Terry Duddy, Darren Marson, John Douglass, Sara Weller (until June 2011), Joe Phillips, Richard Tompkins (founder) |
| Products | Consumer goods |
| Revenue | Sales €4.743 billion (£4.282) (2009) |
| Employees | circa 51,000 |
| Parent | Home Retail Group |
| Website | www.argos.co.uk www.argos.ie www.argos-spain.co.uk |
Argos is the largest general-goods retailer in the United Kingdom and Ireland with over 800 stores. It is unique amongst major retailers in the UK in that it is a catalogue merchant. It primarily displays goods by catalogue, from which customers make their selections to purchase, pay, and then collect the items from an in-store collection desk or have the item delivered to their home, similar to defunct US retailer Montgomery Ward. Together with sister company Homebase, it today forms part of the Home Retail Group.
Argos owns numerous brands including Elizabeth Duke[1] (jewellery, now Jewellery and Watches), Alba, Bush,[2] Chad Valley[3] and many others.[4]
Argos was once a FTSE 100 Index constituent in its own right but is today represented by its parent company Home Retail Group in the FTSE 250 Index.
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The company was founded by Richard Tompkins who had previously established Green Shield Stamps in the United Kingdom. Whilst on holiday in the Greek city of Argos, he came up with the idea that people could purchase goods from his "Green Shield Gift House" with cash rather than savings stamps. He rebranded the original Green Shield Stamps catalogue shops as Argos beginning in July 1973,[5] the first purpose-built store opening on the A28 Sturry Road, Canterbury in late 1973.
Argos was launched with 1000 members of staff, taking £1,000,000 (€1,200,000) during a week in November.[6] Argos was purchased by BAT Industries in 1979 for £32 (€35) million. In 1980, Argos opened its Elizabeth Duke jewellery counter (named after a director's wife) and by 1982 was the UK's fourth biggest jewellery retailer. The Elizabeth Duke brand has since been phased out and replaced with the "Jewellery and Watches" brand.
The company was demerged from BAT Industries and listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1990. It was then acquired by GUS plc in 1998.[7] It subsequently became part of Home Retail Group which was demerged from its parent company, GUS plc, with effect from 10 October 2006.[8]
It was announced in late 2009 that the Argos visual branding would be undergoing changes from 2010. This began on 23 January with the re-launch of the main shopping website, the careers website and the release of the Spring/Summer 2010 catalogue. All stores opening from the start of 2010 onwards will receive the new identity, with older stores being refurbished in the coming years. The company expect that the rebranding process will take "a number of years",[9] at a cost of £70,000,000.
Argos is the registered owner of a number of brands, which feature on a substantial number of products contained within the catalogue, including: Challenge,[10] Pro Action,[11] Visiq,[12][13] Cookworks,[14] Beanstalk,[15] Pro Fitness,[16] Opticom,[17] Grosvenor,[18] Steamworks,[19] Aquarius,[20] Coolworks,[21] and Mega Games. In early 2009, Argos also struck a deal to take over the brands Alba, Bush[2] and Chad Valley.[3]
In 2007 Home Retail Group launched a trial of five stores, branded HomeStore&More, and situated in Aylesbury, Abingdon, Cambridge, Harlow and Cheltenham. These stores are operated by Argos[22] following Home Retail Group's acquisition of a stake in an Irish retail chain with the same name.[23] The Harlow store also includes a "BedStore&More".[24]
Argos operate a financial services price comparison website in conjunction with BeatThatQuote.com.[25]
On 15 June 2011, Argos TV was launched on Sky channel 642 and online.[26] On 25 October 2011, the channel was added to Freesat on channel 819.[27] Argos have leased the Sky EPG slot from JML Direct TV for 12 months to trial the channel and also use JML's facilities in Kentish Town.[28] The channel broadcasts 24-hours a day and is produced by ETV Media Group, with four hours of live programming each weekday and eight hours a day at weekends.[29] Viewers are able to purchase items and collect them from local Argos stores through the retailer's "check and reserve" service.
Argos publishes catalogues twice a year (a Spring/Summer edition in January and an Autumn/Winter edition in July). Current editions have well over 1500 pages containing photographs of items, brief descriptions, prices and a catalogue number. Store copies are almost identical to home versions except for being ring-bound with individually laminated pages.
Catalogues are complemented by seasonal sales flyers, offering Non-Catalogue lines and price reductions on existing deals. Other items are sometimes available in stores, such as ex-catalogue goods at reduced prices (especially after the launch of a new catalogue).
In early 2006, Argos carried out a trial of a new catalogue branded Argos Home in over 100 stores in the U.K. This proved successful and on 5 August 2006, it launched the second Argos Home catalogue, this time in all 200 Argos Extra stores. The catalogue only contains home furniture and styling tips for the current season. Most items displayed in the Argos Home catalogue are also available in the main catalogue too. There are occasionally new lines in the Home catalogue which may have not been available at the time the main catalogue went to print.
As part of the Autumn/Winter 2010 rebrand, all stores will be branded simply as "Argos" when they are refitted. Former "Extra" marked lines will be available in all stores. However, stock levels will entirely depend on the area's demand for that particular line. If it does not sell, then the item will have to be ordered in to that store. (Argos stores in city centres will theoretically have a slightly different stocked-in range than those on retail parks.)
In 2001, Argos sparked a political controversy in Scotland, when it sacked several workers for refusing to work on a Sunday.[30] This action would have been illegal in the rest of the UK, as the Sunday Trading Act 1994 gave shopworkers in England and Wales the right to refuse Sunday work (unless they were employed to work solely on a Sunday). The 1994 Act did not apply to Scotland as there was no legislation regarding Sunday trading applicable to Scotland. Although Argos later retracted its decision to sack the workers and to enforce a Sunday working clause in Scottish employee contracts,[31] its actions led to the passing of the Sunday Working (Scotland) Act 2003 which extended the legal right of employees to refuse Sunday working to include shopworkers in Scotland.
In 2002, Argos, along with rival retailer Littlewoods Index, was accused by the Office of Fair Trading of price fixing goods from toy manufacturer Hasbro.[32] The decision reached in 2003 resulted in Argos being fined £17.28 (€19) million,[33] however, an appeal in 2005 led to that being reduced to £15 (€17) million.[34] Argos boss Terry Duddy gave evidence along with David Snow, Jonathan Ward, Alan Cowley and Ian Thompson.[35] As of 2005, Argos denies price fixing and is appealing the decision.
In 2008, Chinese manufactured sofas from Argos and other retailers Land of Leather and Walmsleys were featured in a BBC Watchdog report on skin irritation.[36] The Chinese manufacturer, LinkWise, denies that the furniture is to blame for the incidents. Watchdog praised Argos for its speedy voluntary recall of the affected products, compared to the two other retailers involved. However, during a lengthy case ending in 2010, customers won compensation against the company.
The higher price that Argos charges for goods in Ireland, compared to the UK, has attracted criticism.[37]
The current slogan for Argos is "Find it, Get it, Argos It", as of late Q2 2010. Previous slogans have included "It's So Easy", "Don't shop for it, Argos it!" and more recently "Helping you Live for Less".
The current charity partner for Argos is the Teenage Cancer Trust. This charity partnership began in July 2010 and will continue until July 2012. Current sponsorship activities by Argos include sponsoring the ITV show Sing If You Can, where funds raised go to the Teenage Cancer Trust. Previous charity partnerships include the British Heart Foundation (July 2008 - July 2010) and Help The Hospices (July 2006 - July 2008).