1973–2014
The company was founded by Richard Tompkins, who had previously established Green Shield Stamps in the United Kingdom. He came up with the idea that people could purchase goods from his "Green Shield Gift House" with cash rather than savings stamps. He rebranded the original Green Shield Stamps catalogue shops as Argos, beginning in July 1973,[14] the first purpose-built shop opening on the A28 Sturry Road, Canterbury, in late 1973. Green Shield House was in Station Road, Edgware.
Argos was launched with thousands of staff, taking £1 million during a week in November.[15] Argos was purchased by BAT Industries in 1979 for £32 million. In 1980, Argos opened its Elizabeth Duke jewellery counter (named after a director's wife) and by 1982, was the United Kingdom's fourth-biggest jewellery retailer. The Elizabeth Duke brand was later phased out, with products sold as "Jewellery and Watches".
The company was demerged from BAT Industries and listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1990.
Argos entered the Irish market in 1996.[16]
In April 1998, the company was acquired by GUS plc.[17] 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 October 2006, it became part of Home Retail Group which was demerged from its parent company, GUS plc, with effect from 10 October 2006.[18]
In May 2002, Argos, along with rival retailer Littlewoods Index, was accused by the Office of Fair Trading of price fixing goods from toy manufacturer Hasbro.[19] The decision reached in 2003 resulted in Argos being fined £17.28 million;[20] however, an appeal in 2005 led to that being reduced to £15 million.[21] Argos boss Terry Duddy gave evidence along with David Snow, Jonathan Ward, Alan Cowley, and Ian Thompson.[22] Argos and the other companies appealed to the Court of Appeal, which dismissed the case and ruled in favour of the Office of Fair Trading in October 2006.[23]
In July 2002, Argos sparked a political controversy in Scotland, when it dismissed several workers for refusing to work on Sundays.[24] This action would have been illegal in the rest of the United Kingdom, as the Sunday Trading Act 1994 gave shopworkers in England and Wales the right to refuse Sunday work (unless they were employed to work solely on Sundays).The 1994 Act did not apply to Scotland; there was no legislation regarding Sunday trading applicable to Scotland. Although Argos later retracted its decision to sack the workers and to enforce a Sunday working clause in Scottish employee contracts,[25] its actions led to the passing of the Sunday Working (Scotland) Act 2003 which extended the legal right of employees to refuse Sunday working to include shopworkers in Scotland.
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.[26][27]
In February 2008, Chinese manufactured sofas from Argos and other retailers Land of Leather and Walmsleys were featured in a BBC Watchdog report on skin irritation.[28] The Chinese manufacturer, LinkWise, denied that the furniture was to blame for the incidents. Watchdog praised Argos for its speedy voluntary recall of the affected products, compared to the two other retailers involved. However, during a lengthy case ending in 2010, customers won compensation against the company.
In January 2009, the higher price that Argos charged for goods in Ireland, compared to the United Kingdom, attracted criticism.[29]
In January 2009, Argos also struck a deal to take over the brands Alba, Bush,[30] and Chad Valley.[31]
In October 2009, it was announced that the Argos visual branding would be undergoing changes from 2010. This began on 23 January, with the relaunch of the main shopping website, and a new logo. The websites claim to make shopping with Argos more accessible. The careers website, and the release of the Spring/Summer 2010 catalogue were also relaunched. The company expected that the rebranding process would take "a number of years", at a cost of £70 million.
In 2012, Argos withdrew from its involvement in a controversial Workfare scheme introduced by Prime Minister David Cameron. Argos and its parent company Home Retail Group were criticised by some for their involvement in the scheme and for failing to offer jobs to those who successfully completed the course. An internal company poster produced by Home Retail Group's owned Homebase, supporting unpaid work to boost profits was leaked to the public, and led to the discontinuation of Workfare by all companies within the Home Retail Group and several other major companies.[32]
In October 2012, Argos announced that they would close some of their catalogue shops in 2013. Thus fewer catalogues would be made available nationwide. This was decided after a significant profit fall, and also to boost the popularity of their online shop.[33]
In a later charity initiative, Argos teamed up with Barnardo's in a six-week campaign in the run-up to Christmas 2012 that raised £700,000 for the children's charity.[34] Under the scheme customers brought in unwanted toys to Argos or Barnado's shops in return for £5 Argos vouchers.[35] Argos passed on the unwanted toys it collected to Barnado's for sale in the charity's own chain of shops.
