Argos

Origins and establishment, 1973–2014

The company was founded by Richard Tompkins, who had previously established Green Shield Stamps, a concept where people could purchase goods from his "Green Shield Gift House" with cash rather than savings stamps. Green Shield Stamps was rebranded as Argos, in July 1973, the first purpose-built shop opening on the A28 Sturry Road, Canterbury, in late 1973.

Argos achieved revenues of £1 million in a week, for the first time, in November 1975. Argos was purchased by BAT in 1979 for £32 million. That year the company had achieved turnover of over £100 million. The company was demerged from BAT and listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1990.

Argos entered the Irish market in 1996. In April 1998, the company was acquired by GUS plc for £1.9 billion, the result of a hostile takeover. A few months later, after a brief leadership stint under Stuart Rose, Terry Duddy became the new chief executive of Argos, serving in the role until 2014.

In May 2002, Argos along with retailer Littlewoods Index, was accused by the Office of Fair Trading of price fixing goods from toy manufacturer Hasbro. In 2003 Argos were fined £17.28 million, reduced to £15 million after an appeal in 2005. The Court of Appeal dismissed a further appeal in October 2006.

In July 2002, Argos dismissed several workers in Scotland for refusing to work on Sundays. This action was illegal in the rest of the United Kingdom, due to the Sunday Trading Act 1994 which did not apply in Scotland. Argos later retracted its decision and ceased enforcing a Sunday working clause in Scottish employee contracts, and this led to the passing of the Sunday Working (Scotland) Act 2003.In October 2006, Argos became part of Home Retail Group which was demerged from GUS plc on 11 October 2006.