Argos to start closing down large UK stores following Sainsbury’s deal

High street giant Argos has agreed to start the closure of its large UK stores following a deal with supermarket chain Sainsbury’s.

The closures will affect 50 of Argos’ larger stores as it will look to set up small departments within Sainsbury’s supermarkets. Some of the catalogue store’s branches – a long standing staple on the British high street — have already closed as a result of the deal made with parent company Sainsbury’s.

As reported in The Mirror, the next major Argos store is due to close in a matter of weeks as many more will follow over the course of the year. The high street retailer will close its Coatbridge branch in Lanarkshire, Scotland in a matter of weeks with a shut down day expected to be on Saturday March 11th.

Following that, Cardiff Bay’s store is due to close its shutters for good in July, but no date has been confirmed as of yet. This will be followed by another Wales branch as Argos Newport is due to be shuttered later in the summer.

Argos Salford is now located within the Sainsbury’s on Regent Road, there is also an Argos desk within Sainsbury’s Piccadilly Train station. The Whitworth Street, Heaton Park and Oxford Road locations are all also inside Sainsbury’s supermarkets.

Earlier this year, Coventry City Arcade’s unit switched its lights off for good on January 7th and Nottingham City centre’s store followed suit the next week. They closed as part of Sainsbury’s plans to close down 50 standalone branches by March this year.

By the end of March, the retailer hopes to open 25 new branches inside supermarkets. As part of its plan, Sainsbury’s then hopes to have around 160 standalone stores and 430-460 Argos counters within its supermarkets.

The news comes as Argos announced it will close all 34 of its stores in the Republic of Ireland, withdrawing from Ireland completely on June 24th, a decision it said it came to after ‘careful consideration’. It found that the investment needed to keep developing the Irish side of the business was ‘not viable’.

The last few years have seen the company cut back its number of stores with 70 closures in 2019 alone and plans to open counters inside supermarkets. It has been part of a wider strategy to close 420 standalone Argos sites over the course of three and a half years.