Argos' sales were up +4.4% YoY in the 16 weeks to 21st June 2025, reports J Sainbury – the group overall achieving its highest market share since 2016.
Argos' sales in Q1 grew ahead of "a subdued, highly competitive and deflationary general merchandise market", helped by warm and dry weather against a weak comparative, says the retailer: "We are making good progress with our More Argos, more often strategy, focused on driving frequency of visit and basket size, with strong customer traffic and volume growth in the first quarter.
"Customers continue to spend carefully and we have strengthened our value proposition across key categories and bestsellers.
"Investment in the customer proposition is being supported by transformation activity focused on reducing fulfilment costs, tighter stock management and further optimisation of our store operating model.
"We are confident in delivering £1b of cost savings by March 2027, investing in high-returning activity across the customer proposition, productivity, operations and technology stability and resilience."
This year will see the launch of the group's new unified retail media platform, Nectar360 Pollen. Designed in-house and powered by customer insight and AI, the platform promises to be "the most advanced of its kind in the UK", enabling customers to plan, book and activate their retail media investment across Sainsbury’s and Argos through one platform.
Simon Roberts, chief executive of J Sainsbury, says: “Our winning combination of great value, outstanding quality, excellent availability and leading customer service has driven further share gains, reaching our highest market share in almost a decade."
