Argos boss steps down as profits plunge

Terry Duddy, chief executive of parent Home Retail Group, will take on her responsibilities on an interim basis until a replacement is found.

Weller is stepping down for pesonal reasons and said she is not interested in another full-time executive role, but hopes to take on non-executive positions.

News of her departure came as Argos and Home Retail reported full-year profit falls to February 26.

Home Retail’s ‘benchmark’ pre-tax-proft slid 13% to £254m on sales down 3% to £5.86bn.

Argos suffered an 18% decline in operating profits to £219m on sales down 3.5% to £4.19bn. Like-for-likes fell 5.6% in the year.

The retailer said that Argos had maintained its market share and that multichannel sales now account for almost half of the total. Refurbished shops are generating bigger sales uplifts than anticipated.

Profits at sister chain Homebase climbed 16% to £47.6m on sales down 1.4% in total. Like-for-likes edged down 0.3%.

Duddy was confident in Home Retail’s prospects and said: “Our focus on operational excellence and further investment in our multichannel leadership has delivered a solid performance and enabled us to gain or hold market share in our businesses.

“Although we remain cautious about the consumer outlook over the short term we will continue to invest and innovate in our customer proposition and use our competitive advantage to provide customers with the best value and widest choice in home and general merchandise.”

Home Retail chairman Oliver Stocken thanked Weller for her contribution. He said: “She has been a great leader for Argos and whilst we will miss her contribution, we fully understand and respect her reasons for stepping down.”

Weller said: “This has been an extremely difficult decision to make but it is absolutely in the best interests of my family and me.”