Furniture drives Homebase sales growth; Argos to use Hygena/Schreiber brands to broaden range

21st October 2009 | retail | A dedicated catalogue and a larger in-store presence made furniture one of the key growth areas for Homebase in the six months to 29th August. The retailer, part of the Home Retail Group (HRG), also tapped into sister firm Argos' sourcing infrastructure as furniture sales outperformed the wider market.

Homebase's latest furniture catalogue features 1,500 lines including a new fitted bedroom collection with a full home installation option. This has been promoted in 30 stores and will now be rolled out to a further 70. The retailer says keeping promotional furniture displays on the shop floor in about 100 stores has been another sales growth driver.

HRG bosses says Homebase will continue to develop its offer as a 'style led' retailer, while sister firm Argos, contrary to service led furniture specialist rivals, will increase the focus on being value oriented, suggesting it may look to increase its number of promotional furniture lines.

It says its Hygena and Schreiber furniture brands will be used to develop its homeware offer into new, as yet unspecified, product areas.

In the past six months Argos sales grew 1.7% to £1.89bn (2.1% down like for like) and Homebase sales grew 4.4% (2.8% up on a same store basis). Almost a third of total Argos sales are derived from the Internet. Despite its variety retail offer, Argos is one of the top furniture retailers by sales volume, with an estimated furniture market share of 4%.