Our key strengths
3 out of 3
A winning team
The heart of our business is our 53,000 colleagues, all of whom are focused on meeting the needs of our customers. At every level of our business, they share a common commitment to getting things right first time, being friendly and efficient and providing good customer service in our stores, over the telephone, online and in customers' homes.
The Group is led by a strong management team that combines long–term experience of the organisation with service in the wider retail sector. The high levels of retail expertise within our retail brands and Group operations contribute to the Group's consistently high levels of performance relative to the rest of the UK retail sector. We encourage professional skills and the career progress of our colleagues through targeted learning and development to ensure that the Group is always well equipped to deal with change.
Our competitors
The Group faces competition from many sources. Our competitors include:
- Established national specialists, such as B&Q, Wickes and Focus in home improvement, Currys and Comet in consumer electronics and domestic appliances, MFI and IKEA in furniture, Woolworths and Toys R Us in toys, H. Samuel in jewellery and Woolworths and Wilkinsons across broader general merchandise
- Supermarkets, such as Tesco, J Sainsbury and ASDA, which have been growing share in certain parts of the non-food, non-clothing market, building on their regular footfall and the increased space given to these ranges
- Online retailers such as Amazon.co.uk, who represent a small but growing share of the non-food, non-clothing market
- Specialist independents, such as regional and local chains selling single product ranges such as toys and jewellery.
We expect our markets to remain highly competitive in the future. Yet the barriers to entry for new market entrants are high, particularly in relation to establishing sourcing and distribution operations on the scale required to be competitive in the long term. As we have demonstrated at Argos and Homebase, economies of scale are key to generating attractive customer propositions, as well as operational cost benefits for the Group.
| Product market | Argos | Homebase | Group position |
Market size |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home enhancement | ||||
| Housewares |
 |
|
1 | £9.1bn |
| Furniture |
|
|
1 | £8.6bn |
| Home improvement (DIY/fitted kitchens/bathrooms) |
|
|
2 | £11.5bn |
| Horticulture, garden furniture and outdoor living |
|
|
2 | £3.2bn |
| General merchandise | ||||
| Small domestic appliances |
|
|
1 | £1.4bn |
| Consumer electronics |
|
|
2 | £15.5bn |
| Large domestic appliances |
|
|
3 | £4.0bn |
| Toys |
|
 |
1 | £1.9bn |
| Jewellery |
|
|
1 | £3.4bn |
| Sports and leisure equipment |
|
|
1 | £1.2bn |
Note: All market positions are for calendar year 2007 and by retail sales except for jewellery, which is measured by volume.
3 out of 3
