Home Retail Group has announced its full year results - including figures for Homebase and Argos for what will almost definitely be the last time.
Over the 52 weeks to February 27, 2016, Argos saw its total sales remain flat while its like-for-likes dropped 2.6% to £4,095m. Homebase, meanwhile saw its LfL sales grow 5.2% while total sales fell by 3.1% throughout the year, bringing in a final figure of £1,433m.

Looking at the last 8 weeks of the year, HRG revealed Argos' total sales had increased 1.9% to £515m, with net new space contributing 3%, principally, it said, as a result of the 94 digital concessions and collection points opened within the past year. The store estate increased by a net 90 stores to 845 over the year.

Electrical sales were particularly negative, revealed the retailer, with jewellery also under-performing. Mobiles did well, and sales of non-electrical product categories including furniture and general sports saw good growth.

Internet sales grew by 13% at Argos and now represent 51% of total Argos sales, up from 46% for the same period last year.

Home Retail Group's chief executive John Walden said: "This has been another rather eventful period for the group, during which we completed the sale of the Homebase business and both J Sainsbury plc and Steinhoff International Holdings N. V. announced possible offers for the acquisition of the remaining group.

"I am pleased with the continued improvement in Argos' sales performance in the period, together with the continued progress in the Argos Transformation Plan to become a digital retail leader. In October we introduced FastTrack - market-leading propositions for same-day home delivery and store collection.

"Since its introduction, customer awareness of FastTrack has continued to grow and its operations are improving, with both on-time delivery rates and customer satisfaction now at leading levels. Along with FastTrack, the combination of our now proven digital concession model, together with improvements in digital experiences have driven increases in both digital sales and digital participation.

"We expect that group benchmark profit before tax for the financial year ended 27 February will be in line with the current consensus of market expectations of £93m. We also expect that the groups' year-on-year cash balance will be significantly stronger than previously anticipated at c.£625m."