Sainsbury's issues update on store closures with plans 'progressing at pace'

Sainsbury’s has issued a major update on Argos store closure plans as nine more branches look set to disappear from the high street. The supermarket chain, which owns Argos, plans to shut nine more standalone locations in the upcoming financial year.

Sainsbury's, the Argos' owner, added: "For the full financial year we expect to open 13 Argos stores within Sainsbury's and close nine standalone stores." Sainsbury's, which counts the likes of Tesco, Morrisons, Asda, Aldi and Lidl among its rivals, has not yet disclosed the locations of the next round of Argos store closures.

A spokesperson for Argos told The Sun newspaper in a fresh update: "The transformation of our Argos store and distribution network has been progressing at pace for several years now, improving availability, convenience and service for customers.

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"As part of this, we are continuing to open new Argos stores and collection points in many of our Sainsbury’s supermarkets, enabling customers to purchase thousands of technology, home and toy products from Argos while picking up their groceries."

Since March 2023, Sainsbury's has reduced the number of standalone Argos stores by 72, down to 213 from 385. It said at the time: "In total, for 2024/25, we expect to open three supermarkets and around 25 new convenience stores, with four supermarkets and three to five convenience stores to close.

"In addition, we expect to open around ten Argos stores inside Sainsbury’s and close around 15-20 Argos stand-alone stores." Earlier this year, Argos's owner added: "We expect the stand-alone Argos store estate will reduce to around 190 stores by March 2025 and we expect to have 450–460 Argos stores inside Sainsbury's supermarkets as well as 480–500 collection points."

And in a recent trading update, Simon Roberts, chief executive of Sainsbury’s, said: “We are pleased with our market-beating grocery performance."