Week 2 – www.argos.co.uk « Careycom425’s Weblog

Week 2 – www.argos.co.uk

October 2, 2008

What is Argos?

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Home.htm?sRefURL=http%3A//www.google.co.uk/search%3Fhl%3Den%26q%3Dargos%26meta%3D

Argos basically offers an online shopping facility to the general public and was first found in 1973, now supplying over 18,000 products. The general idea behind Argos came from a company catalogue, which they produced for promoting all the products they offer to others. Argos is massive giants and offer value and convenience on general merchandise and products for the home. Argos is not only an online business model as it has many stores throughout the UK and Republic of Ireland.

Argos has 707 stores nationwide. Throughout the financial year Argos sales is now sitting at over 4.3 billion pounds (annual report 2008), this is an annual grow of 3.8%. The Company is also known as Home Retail Group (HRG) and now is a solo company (2008) after splitting with GUS in 2006.

Argos has a famous slogan, which is widely known as, ‘Don’t shop for it! Argos it!’

The company employs over 34, 000 people across their business.

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/StaticDisplay/includeName/AboutArgos.htm

‘Argos’ Internet site is the second most popular Internet retail site in the UK’.

Argos serves over 130 million customers a year and a further 4 million through orders over the phone and online website.

http://www.argosb2b.co.uk/about_us

The above shows a bar graph (appropriate 2008)

http://www.homeretailgroupar.com/hrg/arr07/review/argos/?tab=kpis

Acquisition of Argos by GUS plc was in 1998, they then decided to launch an online website in the same year.

http://www.homeretailgroupar.com/hrg/arr07/_downloads/HRG_Annual_Report_2008.pdf

Between 2007 and 2008 a further 27 stores have been established. Argos now has a grand total of 707 stores throughout the UK & ROI.

Argos financial highlights 2008

Gross margin approximately ahead by 50 basis points
Expenses for operating are currently up 4%, of which underlying inflation is approximately 3%
Benchmark/target operating profit £398m (2008), that’s up 11% on 2007 (pro forma £359m), this is a growth of 16%
Benchmark/target profit before tax was £433m, this is up 15% and Argos reported profit before tax was £426m
Basic Benchmark/target earning per share in 2008 currently up 16% (33.9p as apposed to 2007 pro forma of 29.3p) shares are 34.0p (basic earning)
Net cash was increased to £114m in 2008 and closing at 174m
Benchmark/target pre-tax return invested capital is 12.7%, that’s up 70 basis points
Final dividend of 10.0p recommended, a full year divided up to 14.7p as apposed to 2007 (13.0p) that’s an increase of 13%

http://www.homeretailgroupar.com/hrg/arr07/_downloads/HRG_Annual_Report_2008.pdf

Argos profits increased by over £50m, resulting in a strong financial operational performance.

Financial Summary

Throughout 2007 and 2008 Argos was very successful financially.

+13% Growth in dividend per share (2008: 14.7p – 2007: 13.0p)
+114m Increase in closing net cash (2008: £174m-2007: £60m)
£900 Million sales Argos makes via the Internet
+50% Growth in Internet check & reserve sales

Argos, statutory 52 weeks to 1^st March 2008 £m = 4,320.9, pro forma 52 weeks to 3^rd March 2007 £m = 4,164.0 and statutory period to 3^rd March 2007 (short period) £m = 3,912.8

Gross profit, statutory 52 weeks to 1^st March 2008 £m = 376.2, pro forma 52 weeks to 3^rd March 2007 £m =325.0 and statutory period to 3^rd March 2007 (short period) £m = 300.9

http://www.homeretailgroupar.com/hrg/arr07/_downloads/HRG_Annual_Report_2008.pdf

Argos currently is the leader in multi-channel retailing and offer many ways to meet the needs of the customers through three retail brands, in store, shopping at home using catalogues, over the phone and using the Internet. By using multi-channel such as online and retail premises this increases sales in every direction.

Competitors to Argos are B&Q, Curry’s, MFI, IKEA, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, ASDA, Amazon, Woolworths, H.Samuel, etc.

Argos is opening on average 30 stores a year.

Global Internet users who visited argos.co.uk, yesterday in terms of percent was 0.061%, 1 week average 0.0574%, 3 months average 0.0599% and 3 months change is up 16%.

Traffic rank for argos.co.uk yesterday 1,198, 1 week average 1,271, 3 month average 1,223 and 3 month change is up 291.

Page view for users for argos.co.uk yesterday was 8.4, 1 week average 8.44, 3 month average 9.03 and 3 month change is down 10%.

Argos.co.uk has many users from various countries, most popular being UK 94.1%, India 0.7%, US 0.7%, Ireland 0.5% & Pakistan 0.3%.

Argos.co.uk traffic rank in Various countries, UK 39, Ireland 844, Pakistan 3,857, India 11,063 and US 66,966.

http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details/argos.co.uk

I discovered that Argos sales across more than one channel grew to 37%.