Argos was a bad buy – but Sainsbury’s doesn’t need to sell at a silly price | Nils Pratley

Talks to sell the retailer to China’s JD.com are over, but they highlight that a sale on respectable terms should be possibleSainsbury’s talks to sell Argos to Chinese retailer JD.com collapseThe thinking behind Sainsbury’s £1bn-plus purchase of Argos back in 2016 wasn’t entirely other-worldly. The big idea was that, by putting Argos general merchandise shops within Sainsbury’s supermarkets, both chains would benefit via a customer crossover effect. But the problem was also screamingly obvious: why volunteer to step in front of Amazon’s non-food steamroller?Simon Roberts became chief executive of Sainsbury’s in 2020, replacing Mike Coupe, the architect of the Argos deal, and immediately indicated where he stood. His “food first” strategy wasn’t quite a declaration that he viewed Argos as inessential to the day job of competing with Tesco et al, but it wasn’t far off. Continue reading...

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