Argos

Founded in 1973, Argos is a unique catalogue retailer recognised for choice, value and convenience.

It sells general merchandise and products for the home from over 680 stores throughout the UK and Republic of Ireland, online and over the telephone. In the last financial year, Argos sales topped £3.8 billion.

Argos serves over 130 million customers a year through its stores and takes four million customer orders either online or over the phone. On average, 17 million UK households, or around two thirds of the population, have an Argos catalogue at home at any time. Argos expects to add around 30 stores per annum with the chain expected to exceed 800 over time. Its internet site is the second most visited internet retail site in the UK. Argos is Retail Week's 2006 Online Retailer of the Year and winner of the Customer Service Initiative Award.

Although run as an independent business, Argos is part of the Home Retail Group.
Home Retail Group is the UK's leading home and general merchandise retailer with sales of over £5.5 billion in the last financial year. It sells products under two distinctive and complementary retail brands, Argos and Homebase, which are household names in the UK. Argos is a unique multi-channel retailer recognised for choice, value and convenience and is the UK's leading seller of general merchandise. Homebase is the UK's second largest home improvement retailer and is recognised for choice, style and customer service across the wider home enhancement market.
Home Retail Group employs approximately 51,000 people, and has 1,000 stores throughout the UK and Republic of Ireland and serves over 200 million customers a year.

Home Retail Group was demerged from its parent company, GUS plc, in October 2006.

Did you know;

• Home Retail Group makes 7 million deliveries to 1 in 6 UK homes each year
• Argos serves over 130 million customers each year through its 680 stores
• Over 1/3 of Argos’ sales now bypass the store as the order or receipt channel

Delivering for the customer

Argos has always been about offering choice, value and convenience to their customers.

What could be more convenient than having the choice of a huge range of goods delivered directly to your home. Argos are that successful that the Argos Distribution Centre at Bridgwater was recently awarded one of the highest national accreditations, ISO14001, for its new approach to waste recycling and environmental management.

A lot of their products can be delivered within 3 days, and for a small extra charge you can even have them delivered next day or Saturdays. For larger products they can be delivered within 14 days.

Careers at Argos are different

A lot of people think they know exactly what a career in retail management entails. Well at Argos, they think they can show you a few surprises. Not being your average retailer, Argos don't offer average management careers, far from it, and with this in mind, Argos don't look for average people, they look for people with the potential to shape the business and inspire their employees.

You see, Argos is unlike the vast majority of other retailers .For one thing, the revenue they generate per member of staff is particularly high. This is why they can offer their customers such great prices. Whilst for their managers it means the emphasis is very much on running a highly efficient business operation where speed of service is critical.

Argos provide all the support and backing their management teams could ever ask for. Not to mention giving them the freedom to get on with running their store when they don't. It means real responsibility, leading by example and never being afraid to muck in. That's what being an Argos Manager is all about.

Empowerment comes as standard. After all, you could be part of a management team of four running a £20m business. But if you're the right sort of manager for Argos, you'll thrive on this sort of challenge. Which is why the attitude you bring is just as important as your experience.

Opportunities at Head Office

The head office, or Avebury as it is known within the company, is in Milton Keynes , this is the nerve centre for all the company’s activities. So whether you join Commercial Trading/Supply, Retail Operations, Finance or one of the many other departments within Argos, you'll be helping to shape the customers' retail experience. Not to mention, drive the business onto even greater success. Which is no small feat considering how well they are doing already.

It's a vibrant and exciting place to work. Professional yet relaxed, and above all else fun, the company like to think they’ve created something really special. It can be pressurised at times, especially when the company approach’s catalogue launches and Christmas but with a real 'all hands on deck' attitude, Argos always rises to the challenge.

There's a job to suit everyone and don't assume you have to live in Milton Keynes to apply. Many people commute from Bedford, Hemel Hempstead and Northampton to work in Avebury.

Opportunities in Stores

Very much the public face of the business, the c700 (and still growing) retail outlets mean there's an Argos within 10 miles of 95% of the UK population, with an increasing presence in the Republic of Ireland. A fact the company are extremely proud of, as it underlines the success of the customer-focused approach to retailing.

Argos have always been dedicated to providing their customers with the best range of goods at the most competitive prices. Not to mention the most convenient shopping experience. This has meant they’ve continually evolved to improve and widen the range of services they offer. From front of store concepts, like the quick-pay kiosks, to technological innovations, such as the 'click & collect' and 'text & take home' facilities that allow customers to easily reserve goods online or by mobile, Argos have never been ones to rest on their laurels.

But whatever they do, they realise that they can only be as good as their people. Argos people are the real secret to their success. The ones who deliver the outstanding customer service that makes Argos more than just another shop, and keep their customers coming back for more, time and time again.

Awards

Argos won two top awards at the prestigous 'People in Retail Awards' in 2006', one for Employer of the Year and one for Team Player of the Year. The retail bulletin's 'People in Retail Awards 2006' recognise that it is people that make a difference in retail. Enthusiasm, knowledge and commitment to customer service creates a buzz that transforms an everyday shopping experience.

At the Retail Week awards 2006 Argos received two awards.;

Online Retailer of the Year - this award recognised the success of Argos.co.uk, which allows customers to purchase products for home delivery and reserve products for collection in-store. The ability to link internet to store is truly a multi-channel offer.

Customer Services Initiative of the Year - this award acknowledged the service which enables customers to shop online or by telephone and get a text message when their item is ready for collection in-store, meaning they only have to visit the store once.

Store Manager of the year

Milton Keynes Store Manager, Marie Wilson was named Store Manager of the Year at the Retail Week Awards 2005.

In a year where the awards attracted a record of entries, Marie was up against some very tough competition from store managers of Currys, B&Q, The Carphone Warehouse, Holland & Barrett and Waterstones.

Marie joined Argos from school in 1981, initially as part of the youth training Scheme. Her employment started as a customer advisor, in 1993 she was promoted to a management position where she stayed until 2001 working her way up to store manager. She then managed a number of stores before being asked to set up and open a new store in 2003.

Opening a new store is never easy. Opening a new store in the run up to peak trading is decidedly tricky. This was the task facing Marie in the winter of 2003. Managing and training a new team with limited support, but in the end the store opened two days ahead of schedule, with a fully flexible team and traded successfully through peak period. Since then the performance of the store has gone from strength to strength.

Marie has shown throughout her work with Argos, commitment to retail, energy, enthusiasm and dedication. She has stuck to her own personal belief in empowering her people to achieve success. Constantly going that extra mile to ensure that the customer receives a quality of service that exceeds their expectations.

The Retail Week awards have come to be recognised as the showcase for the leading performers in the UK retail industry. This is the first time that an Argos store manager has won this award, and it is recognition that the job of managing an Argos store and driving high standards of performance for customers through a team is a very significant and fulfilling challenge.

Developing the brand

As the UK’s leading general merchandise retailer, Argos provides a highly successful and unique offer of choice, value and convenience.

Further market share gains achieved. With sales growing 8% to £4.2 billion, Argos continued to extend its share of the overall home and general merchandise market. Argos was named as the UK’s biggest furniture retailer by Verdict Research.

Widest ever customer choice. The current Argos catalogue offers over 17,000 lines across all stores and channels. Since national roll-out of the additional Argos Extra ranges, awareness of the wider offering has continued to build. At the end of the financial period, there were 238 stores that stocked-in the additional 3,000 lines; this is an increase of nearly 50 stores compared to the same time last year and is driven by a roughly equal mix of new stores and existing store conversions. All the remaining stores offer customers the option to either order-in for later collection from store or to have goods delivered to home.

Multi-channel leadership further strengthened. Internet orders grew 45% to represent over 16% of total Argos sales; online reservations for later collection in store now represent over half of this, and grew 60% in the year. A further 8% of total sales are via telephone or text. In addition, of the 22% of total sales that are delivered to home, around half of these are still ordered in store. Together, this means that over one-third of all Argos’ sales are ordered or received by customers using more than one channel.

In the recent Hitwise UK Online Performance Awards, www.argos.co.uk was the second most visited site within the ‘Shopping & Classifieds’ category, behind only Amazon and therefore ahead of all other UK retailers. Argos was also the third most searched for brand during 2006, behind only eBay and ‘Bebo’.

Home delivery convenience enhanced. Argos Direct is the largest two-man delivery infrastructure in the UK, with around five million products delivered in the last year. Using a fleet of around 800 vehicles, it now makes deliveries in three slots across the day – morning, midday and afternoon. This leading level of service also includes drivers calling ahead to customers to confirm delivery. Argos’ delivery of smaller products through the third-party provider Home Delivery Network is also now operated on morning or afternoon delivery slots.

New stores extending customer reach. There were 30 store openings and 5 store closures during the year, bringing the total at the end of the year to 680 stores. Of the 30 store openings, 3 were relocations and 10 were in new catchments, with the remainder being additional stores in an existing catchment. The openings included 26 Argos Extra stocked-in stores.

Training & Development

Home Retail Group takes an active stance in developing the skills of its people. In the last year, they provided over 236,000 days of training. The figure includes the number of training days allocated in stores for both off-job and on-job training and inductions.

Every new starter has a formal induction to orientate themselves within the Group. Additionally, every employee has access to a development training programme. Entry to the programme is agreed with an employee’s line manager during bi-annual performance reviews where training needs are assessed and agreed. 40 different training programmes are offered to all managers across the Group and all head office staff and this offer is refreshed every quarter. Workshops are available for managers in order for them to develop the necessary skills to get the most out of the performance reviews with their teams and offer good support.

Argos has an internal programme of developing management talent to enable employees to step up to senior management and future Board positions. Three different programmes are offered based on an individual’s grade and in total five programmes are run every year, covering a period of approximately six months training.

Argos now operate graduate leadership programmes in which they employ the country’s top university students to enter an intensive, fast track, 24 month programme designed to develop business leaders of the future.

Employee engagement

Argos see it as essential that they engage their employees as it is through their efforts that they can deliver their strategy. The company do this by listening to feedback made in their annual employee surveys and through clear top down communication cascaded through team briefings, large employee events, Intranet sites and staff newsletters.

• The business conduct regular employee opinion surveys across all areas of the Home Retail Group, to understand colleagues’ views and to identify ways in which they can continue to improve the working environment. The surveys calculate an ‘engagement’ score which comprises a number of different measures including pride and advocacy.
• Regular team briefings are held to share key messages and create a cascade to all employees, where relevant. Store managers brief their employees daily on key operational issues and new product launches.
• Employee events are held at offices, distribution centres and at conferences, and these are used to communicate important changes within the Group, such as the recent demerger from GUS and the launch of new business initiatives, including Christmas and Easter trading plans to staff. In addition, Argos hold a number of functional conferences on a regular basis.

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