SAINSBURY’S has issued a major update ahead of Argos store closure plans, which will see a further 20 more branches shut.
Argos will close over a dozen standalone stores in the next financial year.
It comes as Sainsbury’s, the brand’s owners, released its first quarter trading statement today.
The statement showed that sales at Argos slipped by 6.2% in the 16 weeks to June 22.
Sainsbury’s closing standalone Argos stores as it looks to move the brand’s presence away from the high street and into supermarkets.
Argos’ owner confirmed the news of a further 15 to 20 closures when it published its annual report earlier this year.
It stated: “In total, for 2024/25, we expect to open three supermarkets and around 25 new convenience stores, with four supermarkets and three to five convenience stores to close.
“In addition, we expect to open around ten Argos stores inside Sainsbury’s and close around 15-20 Argos stand-alone stores.”
Since March 2023, Sainsbury’s has reduced the number of standalone Argos stores by 72, down from 385 to 213.
However, it has increased the number of Argos stores within Sainsbury’s supermarkets by 22 – from 424 to 426.
Argos’s owner added: “We expect the stand-alone Argos store estate will reduce to around 190 stores by March 2025 and we expect to have 450–460 Argos stores inside Sainsbury’s supermarkets as well as 480–500 collection points.”
We’ve asked Sainsbury’s to confirm which standalone Argos stores are set to shut.
Sainsbury’s reported a 3% rise in like-for-like sales, excluding fuel, in the 16 weeks to June 22, stripping out the closure of its Argos business in Ireland, on Tuesday.
Total grocery sales lifted 4.8% as the firm saw robust volume growth, with food inflation now having fallen back significantly.
Sainsbury’s revealed that total general merchandise sales fell 4.3% due largely to a blow from unseasonal early summer weather, while sales in the Argos business fell 6.2% due to weaker demand for consumer electronics and gaming products.
The group said it was sticking to its guidance for underlying retail operating profits of between £1.01billion and £1.06billion for the full year, which would be growth of 5% to 10%.
Simon Roberts, chief executive of Sainsbury’s, said: “We are pleased with our market-beating grocery performance.
“We’ve been winning from competitors every month for 15 months, as more and more people are choosing Sainsbury’s for their big weekly shop.”
EMPTY shops have become an eyesore on many British high streets and are often symbolic of a town centre's decline.
The Sun’s business editor Ashley Armstrong explains why so many retailers are shutting their doors.
In many cases, retailers are shutting stores because they are no longer the money-makers they once were because of the rise of online shopping.
Falling store sales and rising staff costs have made it even more expensive for shops to stay open. In some cases, retailers are shutting a store and reopening a new shop at the other end of a high street to reflect how a town has changed.
The problem is that when a big shop closes, footfall falls across the local high street, which puts more shops at risk of closing.
Retail parks are increasingly popular with shoppers, who want to be able to get easy, free parking at a time when local councils have hiked parking charges in towns.
Many retailers including Next and Marks & Spencer have been shutting stores on the high street and taking bigger stores in better-performing retail parks instead.
Boss Stuart Machin recently said that when it relocated a tired store in Chesterfield to a new big store in a retail park half a mile away, its sales in the area rose by 103 per cent.
In some cases, stores have been shut when a retailer goes bust, as in the case of Wilko, Debenhams Topshop, Dorothy Perkins and Paperchase to name a few.
What’s increasingly common is when a chain goes bust a rival retailer or private equity firm snaps up the intellectual property rights so they can own the brand and sell it online.
They may go on to open a handful of stores if there is customer demand, but there are rarely ever as many stores or in the same places.
We have the full list of Argos stores that have closed down since last year, including the new concessions that have opened up in Sainsbury’s supermarkets.
A spokesperson for Argos previously told The Sun: “The transformation of our Argos store and distribution network has been progressing at pace for several years now, improving availability, convenience and service for customers.”
“As part of this, we are continuing to open new Argos stores and collection points in many of our Sainsbury’s supermarkets, enabling customers to purchase thousands of technology, home and toy products from Argos while picking up their groceries.”
However, it’s not all doom and gloom on the high street.
Several major retailers have plans to increase their store counts.
IT'S not all bad news on the high street as several retailers are bucking the trend and opening shops.
