Argos Limited, commonly known as Argos, is a British general merchandise retailer currently owned by Sainsbury's. The company was incorporated as Argos Distributors Limited in November 1972 and began trading in 1973, when entrepreneur Richard Tompkins opened 17 catalogue showrooms. Its retail system developed from Tompkins established Argos by evolving his existing Green Shield Stamps business and combined elements of mail-order and conventional retailing: customers selected products from a catalogue before ordering and collecting them from a stock held at a showroom.
Argos became associated with a distinctive catalogue-showroom model in which relatively little merchandise was displayed on the sales floor. The printed catalogue instead performed much of the product-display and merchandising function, while stores primarily handled stock checking, payment and collection. Retail historian Leigh Sparks has identified this separation of production selection from fulfilment as an important feature of the company's development and later adaptation to multichannel retailing.
The business expanded rapidly during the 1970s and acquired by BAT Industries in 1979. BAT demerged Argos in 1990, returning it to independent public ownership, before Great Universal Stores (GUS) acquired it in 1998 for approximately £1.9 billion. GUS subsequently incorporated Argos into Argos Retail Group, which was demerged in 2006 as Home Retail Group alongside Homebase.
Argos developed substantial internet and multichannel operations during the 2000s. Internet orders accounted for 15 per cent of sales by 2006 and 42 per cent by 2012. A five-year transformation programme launched in 2012 sought to make Argos a "digital-led retailer", with redesigned stores, greater use of mobile and online ordering, and changed to its distribution network. In 2015 it introduced Fast Track, a nationwide same-day delivery service.
Sainsbury's acquired Home Retail Group in September 2016 following a takeover battle valuing the company at about £1.4 billion. It subsequently relocated hundreds of Argos stores into Sainsbury's supermarkets and reorganised the retailer increasingly around online ordering, collection points and local fulfilment. The regular printed catalogue was discontinued in 2020 and Argos withdrew from the Republic of Ireland in 2023.
By 2025 around 80 per cent of Argos sales were made through digital channels. In July 2026 Sainsbury's agreed to sell Argos to Swift Partners, a company established for the acquisition by retail executives Richard Pennycook, Trevor Strain and Matt Truman alongside investment firm True Capital, for cash proceeds of at least £120 million. The transaction, which includes 201 standalone Argos stores and 466 stores within Sainsbury's supermarkets, is expected to complete in February 2027. Sainsbury's and Argos plan to retain long-term commercial agreements covering stores and collection points within Sainsbury's, Nectar, Nectar360 and Habitat.
Contents
History
Origins and establishment, 1973–2014
The company was founded by Richard Tompkins, who had previously established Green Shield Stamps, a concept where people could purchase goods from his "Green Shield Gift House" with cash rather than savings stamps. Green Shield Stamps was rebranded as Argos, in July 1973, the first purpose-built shop opening on the A28 Sturry Road, Canterbury, in late 1973.
Argos achieved revenues of £1 million in a week, for the first time, in November 1975. Argos was purchased by BAT in 1979 for £32 million. That year the company had achieved turnover of over £100 million. The company was demerged from BAT and listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1990.
Argos entered the Irish market in 1996. In April 1998, the company was acquired by GUS plc for £1.9 billion, the result of a hostile takeover. A few months later, after a brief leadership stint under Stuart Rose, Terry Duddy became the new chief executive of Argos, serving in the role until 2014.
In May 2002, Argos along with retailer Littlewoods Index, was accused by the Office of Fair Trading of price fixing goods from toy manufacturer Hasbro. In 2003 Argos were fined £17.28 million, reduced to £15 million after an appeal in 2005. The Court of Appeal dismissed a further appeal in October 2006.
In July 2002, Argos dismissed several workers in Scotland for refusing to work on Sundays. This action was illegal in the rest of the United Kingdom, due to the Sunday Trading Act 1994 which did not apply in Scotland. Argos later retracted its decision and ceased enforcing a Sunday working clause in Scottish employee contracts, and this led to the passing of the Sunday Working (Scotland) Act 2003.In October 2006, Argos became part of Home Retail Group which was demerged from GUS plc on 11 October 2006.
In February 2007, Argos opened five shops in Mumbai, India. Argos had a franchise agreement, run in conjunction with HyperCity; its Indian retail partner. In January 2009, Argos closed all its shops in India owing to poor sales.
In 2008, sofas from retailers including Argos were featured on BBC Watchdog due to them causing health reactions. The sofas were manufactured by Chinese company LinkWise. Argos had to compensate customers impacted, after a group of consumers look legal action. The cause was a sachet, inside the sofas, of fungicidal chemical dimethyl fumarate, used to prevent mould.
2015–2024
In January 2015, Argos took over the rights to sell the Cherokee clothing line from Tesco; however, this was phased out in 2017 in favour of Sainsbury's own Tu brand of clothing.
0n 2 September 2016 Argos' parent Home Retail Group was acquired by Sainsbury's for £1.4 billion following a bidding war between the supermarket chain and South African conglomerate Steinhoff International.
In 2019, Sainsbury's closed about 70 Argos free-standing stores,and included 80 Argos branches in Sainsbury's supermarkets. In 2020 the printed catalogue was discontinued; orders were made using an online catalog or digital displays in store. Up to ten million copies of each catalogue had been printed over it's 93-edition existence. On 5 November 2020, Sainsbury's announced it would close 420 Argos standalone outlets by March 2024, together with other measures that included 3,500 job losses across Sainsbury's, to save £600 million. John Colley, associate dean of Warwick Business School, commented that the closures were an admission that Sainsbury's purchase of Argos had been a mistake; however integrating Argos into Sainsbury's stores had been planned from the outset of the acquisition.
On 24 June 2023, Argos ceased its operations in Ireland, due to challenging trading conditions, high rents and because the investment required to modernise the business in Ireland was considered unviable. In the same month Argos closed its head office on Avebury Boulevard, Milton Keynes, and moved their registered office to Sainsbury's head office in Holborn, London.
In 2024, Argos disposed of Argos Financial Services, for around £720m.
Since 2025
On 13 September 2025, Sainsbury's held negotiations for the sale of Argos to Chinese online retailer JD.com, stating that "JD.com would bring world-class retail, technology and logistics expertise and invest to drive Argos' growth and further transform the customer experience", but that "no agreement has been reached". A day later, it abandoned the sale.
On 31 July 2026, Sainsbury's announced it would sell Argos to newly-created firm Swift Partners for £120m, with the sale completed in February 2027. Sainsbury's, together with the new owners of Argos, stated the intention to retain an in-store presence in Sainsbury's supermarkets, and to continue using the Nectar loyalty programme. Sainsbury's would continue to sell Argos-branded products such as Habitat. Richard Pennycook would serve as chairman and head up the nearly 14,000 of existing Argos staff who would be transferred to Swift Partners upon completion, as part of the purchase.
Past projects
ArgosCompare
Argos operated a financial services price comparison website, in conjunction with BeatThatQuote.com. In January 2012, ArgosCompare was taken offline, as it did not comply with new guidance issued by the UK Financial Service Authority.
Argos Credit Card
In August 2006, Barclays and Argos announced a joint venture to produce an Argos Credit Card. In 2024, Sainsbury's agreed a deal to divest the Argos credit card business to NewDay for £720 million.
ArgosTV
On 15 June 2011, ArgosTV was launched on Sky channel 642. From October 2011 it was available on Freesat, on channel 819. On 19 September 2012, ArgosTV launched on Freeview, on channel 55 for a limited set of hours. ArgosTV was discontinued in 2013.
Catalogue
The printed Argos catalogue was central to the company's original operating model and became one of its most recognisable features. The principal catalogue was normally published twice a year from 1973 until 2020. Retail historian Leigh Sparks has treated surviving editions both as evidence of the evolution of Argos and as sources for studying changes in British consumer culture and retailing.
The first catalogue, issued in 1973, contained 4,417 separately numbered products across 252 pages, including 241 product pages. By the fiftieth catalogue in 1998, the publication had grown to 588 pages and contained 6,344 products.
Although the catalogue grew substantially, the density of products on each page fell. Sparks calculated an average of 18.3 products per product page in the first catalogue, compared with 11.5 in the fiftieth. Later catalogues used larger photographs, more elaborate layouts, additional technical information and greater use of products shown within lifestyle settings.
The assortment also recorded changes in consumer technology and taste. Categories appearing in later catalogues included personal computers, mobile telephones, digital camera and other products that either did not exist or were not mass-market consumer goods in the early 1970s. The relative prominence of jewellery, furniture and toys also increased as Argos developed substantial businesses in those categories.
The catalogue reached exceptionally large circulation. By the late 1990s Argos was distributing approximately 36 million catalogues a year across its principal editions. By 2013 an estimated 18 million British households had a copy, while around 96 per cent of the population lived within ten miles of an Argos store.
The catalogue became particularly associated with Christmas shopping and with children selecting or marking desired presents. Its cultural reputation was reinforces by comedian Bill Bailey's description of it as the "laminated book of dreams".
Argos announced the end of its regular printed catalogue in July 2020. More than one billion copies had been printed during its lifetime. The number of copies of each edition had fallen approximately ten million to around three million during the preceding decade as customers moved increasingly towards online and mobile browsing; Argos initially retained a separate Christmas gift guide.