28 March 2024, 19:18
By Furniture News May 04, 2021

Argos achieves growth despite closures

The year ended 6th March 2021 saw Sainsbury’s achieve general merchandise sales growth of +8.3% and digital sales growth of +102%, with Argos achieving sales growth of +10.9% YoY despite a severely depleted store network (see related).

The retailer says it is dedicated to achieving greater product availability and lower service costs through Argos, while Habitat has achieved even greater reach as the supermarket's leading furniture and home brand.

Chief executive Simon Roberts says: “This year’s financial results have been heavily influenced by the pandemic. Food and Argos sales are significantly higher, but the cost of keeping colleagues and customers safe during the pandemic has been high. Our full-year direct Covid-19 costs were £485m, leading to a -39% decrease in full-year underlying profit.

“We have accelerated our digital transformation this year as we focus on serving customers however they want to shop with us. Argos digital sales grew almost +70% and our Argos transformation plan is on track to improve customer availability while reducing our costs.

“Like our customers, we are all looking forward to things feeling more normal over the coming months and getting excited about a summer of celebration, but we are also cautious about the economic outlook."

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