Sainsbury’s has announced the sale of its Argos business to Swift Partners, a newly formed company led by retail veterans including former Co-operative Group chief Richard Pennycook, in a deal valued at a minimum of £120 million. The agreement follows a decade after Sainsbury’s acquired Argos owner Home Retail Group for £1.4 billion in 2016.
The transaction is expected to be completed by February 2027, with a full separation of the two businesses scheduled for 2029. As part of the deal, Swift Partners will take ownership of 201 standalone Argos stores, 466 outlets located within Sainsbury’s supermarkets, over 450 collection points, and additional assets including the Habitat brand, a distribution centre in Daventry, Northamptonshire, as well as sourcing offices in Shanghai and Hong Kong. Approximately 1,400 Argos employees will transfer to the new owner, with Sainsbury’s emphasizing that operations and staffing will continue as usual during the transition.
Sainsbury’s chief executive Simon Roberts described the sale as an opportunity to sharpen the supermarket’s focus on its core food and grocery business while creating a ‘strongest possible future for Argos.’ He highlighted Swift Partners’ retail leadership and long-term investment capability as beneficial for accelerating the transformation of the Argos brand. The deal also includes ongoing income streams for Sainsbury’s under agreements related to the stores-within-stores model and the Nectar loyalty scheme.
Swift Partners, comprising Pennycook, former Morrisons chief operating officer Trevor Strain, and Matt Truman, co-founder of investment firm True Capital, aims to invest in and build upon Argos’s existing progress. Pennycook indicated plans to potentially open new standalone Argos stores in locations without current presence or within Sainsbury’s and to reassess the brand’s appeal, including considering a revival of the once-popular Argos catalogue, discontinued in 2020 after nearly five decades.
The sale price represents a significant reduction compared to Sainsbury’s initial purchase price, marking a notable shift following Sainsbury’s 2024 divestment of Argos’s financial services arm for approximately £720 million. The move has been met with cautious response from retail unions; Bally Auluk, national officer at Usdaw, acknowledged the uncertainty posed to workers but assured that support and representation would be provided throughout the process.
The restructuring signals Sainsbury’s strategic pivot towards prioritizing food retail, while Swift Partners take on the challenge of revitalizing Argos amid evolving consumer habits and competitive pressures in the retail sector.