HOME OFFER LETS ARGOS DOWN AS LIKE FOR LIKE SALES FALL

11th September | retail | Furniture and homewares suffered as Argos reported negative second quarter like for like sales. After flat like for likes in the first quarter, the retailer reported a 5.8% drop in Q2 – a combined fall of 3% in the half year to 30th August.

The chain’s home offer was central to its worsening performance, with furniture and homewares well down while positive growth was still evident for its electricals offer. There was further evidence of the rise in online activity, as the firm’s online check and reserve system, where consumers can place a provisional order on the Internet before collecting instore, climbed 40% and now represents 13% of sales.

Total sales for the 26 weeks to 30th August were £1.86bn – a 2% rise on last year, but with 33 further stores in the Argos portfolio compared to last year.

Terry Duddy, chief executive of Home Retail Group, Argos’ parent company, said, ‘The performance of Argos and Homebase in the latest quarter was reflective of a difficult consumer environment. However, the Group's focus on cost control should result in benchmark profit for the half-year being in line with our expectations.’

Stable mate Homebase performed even worse. First half like for like sales dropped 10.3% and total sales fell 2.9% to £829m.