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Argos’ parent Home Retail Group has revealed that it is to close all of its UK HomeStore & More stores.
The four outlets, in Cambridge, Abingdon, Aylesbury and Harlow, will all be shut by the end of February, ending a trial venture through which the group – which also owns Homebase – had hoped to grow its homewares business.
The move will affect 135 employees at the HomeStore & More stores as well as those employed at the group’s head office in Milton Keynes.
However, a spokesperson for the Home Retail Group told HousewaresLive.net’s sister title DIY Week that the group hopes to relocate a “good number” of employees at Homebase and Argos stores within the surrounding areas.
Explaining the reason behind the decision to close down the trial format, which was started in 2007, he said that it was “of its time but didn’t progress forward in the way that was hoped and the business moved on. The trial hadn’t moved into profitability and we couldn’t foresee that it was going to.”
He added that Home Retail Group’s recent acquisition of Habitat had provided “unexpected opportunities” and, with the ongoing development of key brands such as Homebase the parent firm “has moved on and things have changed”.
