About Us

Welcome to Argos, part of Home Retail Group.

Home Retail Group was demerged from its parent company, GUS plc, in October 2006. More information on Home Retail Group can be found on its corporate website, www.homeretailgroup.com (this is a separate website and will open a new window), including sections on investor relations, media centre, corporate responsibility and careers.

As part of the Home Retail Group, our sister company Homebase offers a large range of kitchens, bathrooms and can provide you with DIY advice across many home enhancement categories’

Here, you can read a brief introduction to Argos, understand our corporate responsibility policies and learn a little about our charitable partner.

About Argos

Argos is a unique retailer recognised for choice, value and convenience. It sells general merchandise and products for the home from over 700 stores throughout the UK and Republic of Ireland, online and over the telephone. In the last financial year, Argos sales grew 8% to £4.2 billion and it employed some 34,000 people across the business.

Argos serves over 130 million customers a year through its stores and takes four million customer orders either online or over the phone. On average, 17 million UK households, or around two thirds of the population, have an Argos catalogue at home at any time. Argos expects to add around 30 stores per annum with the chain expected to exceed 800 over time. Its internet site is the second most visited internet retail site in the UK.

Argos is part of Home Retail Group, the UK’s leading home and general merchandise retailer.

More information about Argos can be found on www.homeretailgroup.com (this is a separate website and will open a new window).

Corporate responsibility

As Argos is part of Home Retail Group plc, detailed information on the company's corporate responsibility policy can be found on www.homeretailgroupcr.com (this is a separate website and will open a new window). The site includes information on environmental issues, such as energy and waste management, our timber sourcing policy, chemical strategy, ethical trading conditions in our supply chain and community activities.Here are just some of the practical ways in which we try to be socially, ethically and environmentally responsible

Easier shopping for customers with disabilities

We're committed to making our stores and services accessible to everyone. If you need any help shopping with us, please give us a call on 0845 640 3030 or ask in store and we'll do everything we can to make things easier.

You can also contact our 'minicom' service on 0845 640 0755 but you will need a text phone to access this service.

We offer an audio CD version of our services, with a selection of our products. Please call 01435 862 737 for a copy of this CD. (This number cannot deal with any other enquiries)

Information on access to facilities at all our stores is available on www.directenquiries.com.

Argos and recycling

Catalogues

All our catalogues and flyers can be recycled! Many local authorities provide kerbside collection schemes for old newspapers and catalogues. Our old catalogues are particularly sought after by newspaper print manufacturers as they help to improve the quality of the recycled paper in newsprint.

We'd love as many old catalogues as possible to be recycled so when you're ready to pick up your new catalogue, please recycle your old one. You can use your kerbside collection schemes where available, visit your local recycling points or go to your nearest store where we'll be happy to recycle the catalogues for you.

You can find out where your nearest recycling centre is by visiting www.recyclenow.com.

Waste packaging

Most waste packaging can be recycled. Recyclenow.com has got lots of tips on what to do with waste packaging. Cardboard boxes are easy to squash flat and recycle!

Carrier bags

At Argos we’re committed to helping the environment so although we are happy to provide a plastic carrier bag if you request one, please play your part by helping us cut our carrier bag usage by 25%. Reuse our carrier bags as often as possible and when you’ve finished with them, look out for a local recycling scheme or dispose of them safely so that they don't cause a litter problem.

Furniture

If you have an item of furniture that you no longer need following your purchase from Argos, there is a charity near you that can put it to good use. Local charities take unwanted furniture and make it available for people on low incomes. A national helpline is run by the Furniture Re-use Network or you can look for groups on the internet. Website: www.frn.org.uk

Disposal of electrical waste products

The United Kingdom is under an obligation to minimise the disposal of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) in domestic waste and encourage recycling, recovery and environmentally sound disposal. Home Retail Group is committed to promoting the reuse, recycling and recovery of WEEE by contributing to the appropriate compliance schemes. Product packaging will be marked with the crossed out wheeled bin symbol (see below) to indicate that the product must not be disposed of in domestic waste but disposed of through an approved WEEE take back scheme. For details of your local collection facilities, please contact your local authority or visit www.recycle-more.co.uk.

Mobile phones

Argos has signed up with , the UK's first mobile phone recycling website that pays mobile phone recyclers to trade in their working mobile phones. In the next 12 months, over 15 million old mobiles will be upgraded with many of the old ones being thrown away. Some could be worth over £100 - would you throw that much money in the bin?

Inkjet printer cartridges

Did you know – over 350 million cartridges are thrown away each year adding to the ever growing environmental problems facing us today?

Argos has teamed up with The Recycling Factory who collect and recycle empty ink cartridges, to make saving the environment even easier. For every inkjet cartridge that can be successfully recycled, The Recycling Factory will make a donation to the British Heart Foundation.

This means you can help protect the environment and make a difference to a worthwhile charity.

To recycle your inkjet cartridges please collect a freepost envelope from your local store, place your empty cartridge inside the envelope and return in the post (free of charge).

For further information or to request envelopes from The Recycling Factory please contact them on argos@trf-uk.com

Argos in the community

Argos is proud to be supporting the British Heart Foundation from July 2008 to July 2010 as part of the ‘Keeping hearts beating’ campaign. They were chosen by an overwhelming majority of employees by staff vote from a short list of charities.

The British Heart Foundation is the nation’s heart charity, dedicated to saving lives every day through pioneering research, caring for patients and families, campaigning for change and providing vital information to help people care for their own heart health.  The vision of the British Heart Foundation is of a world in which people do not die prematurely of heart disease.

Argos colleagues and customers are raising money to fund vital defibrillators in the community that can help save lives. The British Heart Foundation relies on the generosity of people like you to continue our vital work - look out for fundraising activities in your local Argos, or to make a donation to the British Heart Foundation, simply tick the box on the selection slip in-store and 20p will be added to your total. Alternatively, if you would like to make a donation on-line now, please use the donate button.

(Argos.co.uk is not responsible for the content of external websites. this link will open in a new window)

For more information about the British Heart Foundation please visit bhf.org.uk

Charitable Policy

Argos supports many long term projects across the UK and ROI, working with many different kinds of charitable and not for profit organisations.

We have taken this approach because we believe that the best way for us to help to make a real and lasting difference to the community projects and causes that we support is for us to work in partnership with them on approved projects. This approach enables us to get the maximum benefit from our support and to provide an enduring legacy for those projects.

Our policy therefore is not to support general requests for donations for either vouchers or gifts in kind.

If you would like a full explanation of our policies or to read more about some of the major projects we have been able to support, further details are available in our group's Corporate Responsibility Report (this is a separate website and will open a new window).