Argos was a bad buy – but Sainsbury’s doesn’t need to sell at a silly price | Nils Pratley
The 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,Thus nobody was surprised by Sainsbury’s confirmation on Saturday that it was considering an approach for Argos from JD.
com, the enormous Chinese retailer,The identity of the would-be buyer was logical – JD,com publicly flirted with the idea of bidding for electrical chain Curry’s last year and is still thought to be keen on a splashy entry into the UK,Sunday, however, brought news that the talks were off already because, said Sainsbury’s, JD,com would only engage on “materially revised terms and commitments”.
In negotiation-speak, that’s like calling the other side a bunch of time-wasters.The talks look properly dead.Everybody knows Argos isn’t worth what it was in 2016, but it’s still a substantial business.There is still a possible upside to the messy weekend saga for those Sainsbury’s investors who view Argos as unwanted baggage.The mere fact of talks suggests Argos has not become so enmeshed in Sainsbury’s infrastructure that the business could never be separated and sold.
Of the 664 Argos shops, 461 are within a Sainsbury’s store, so a divorce would still be tricky.But more and more of Argos’s trade is going online, so perhaps there is still somebody out there who would want the 200-odd rump stand-alone shops, allowing Sainsbury’s to take back its store space to put to better use.Sainsbury’s doesn’t reveal Argos’s profits, but the detail-free charts it occasionally publishes suggest margins are slim (certainly slimmer than in the supermarkets) and have been getting slimmer in recent years.On the other hand, turnover at Argos is almost £5bn and digitalisation has happened, so perhaps there is still an appeal for somebody.For Roberts, Argos is best viewed as a low-level headache.
Its presence is annoying for shareholders who would prefer a pure grocery-only story, especially now Sainsbury’s has sold most of its bank.But the core supermarket business isn’t obviously being distracted – and the weekend update confirmed this year’s expectations on operating profit and cashflow, which helped the share price.The worry is more the medium-term one that, one day, the demand on Argos to stand on its own feet internally will become impossible to maintain.Sign up to Business TodayGet set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morningafter newsletter promotionIt would have been better if Argos had never been bought in the first place because the competitive pressure in non-food is relentless.But it is still fair to turn down offers at silly prices.
Roberts has a couple of years to find an alternative – either a self-help fix of Argos or a sale on respectable terms,The task is not easy, but nor should it be impossible,
Vegan burgers are losing the US culture war over meat: ‘It’s not our moment’
Plant-based burgers were supposed to help wean Americans off their environmentally ruinous appetite for meat. But sales have plummeted amid a surging pro-meat trend embraced by the Trump administration, raising a key question – will vegetarianism ever take hold in the US?This year has been a punishing one for the plant-based meat sector, led by companies such as Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods, with sales of refrigerated products slumping 17%. This follows a difficult 2024, during which sales fell 7%, furthering a multi-year spiral – last year Americans purchased 75m fewer units of plant-based meat than they did in 2022.Despite hopes that burgers, sausages and chicken made from soy, peas and beans would curb Americans’ love of eating butchered animals – thereby reducing the rampant deforestation, water pollution and planet-heating emissions involved in raising livestock – these alternatives languish at just 1% of the total meat market in the US.Instead, a resurgent focus on meat has swept the US, pushed by industry lobbyists and online wellness influencers who advocate greater protein consumption via the carnivore diet and deride plant alternatives as overly processed
Helen Goh’s recipe for plum and star anise frangipane tart | The sweet spot
Late-season plums are wonderful to bake with; juicy and slightly astringent as you get closer to the skin, they soften into a rich, almost winey sweetness. And, when they’re nestled into soft almond cream and scented with star anise, they make a delicious tart for any time of day. Serve warm with pouring cream as pudding or cold with a cup of tea.Prep 15 minChill 1 hr 30 min Cook 1 hr 45 min Serves 8-10For the pastry 300g plain flour, plus extra for dusting 90g icing sugar ¼ tsp salt 200g cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes, plus an extra 10g, melted, for greasingFinely grated zest of 1 lemon 1 large egg yolk 20ml ice-cold waterFor the plums 4-5 medium plums (about 100g each), halved, stoned and sliced into 1cm-wide wedges1 tbsp caster sugar 3 whole star anise (about 3g), finely ground in a mortar to get 1½ tspFor the filling125g unsalted butter, at room temperature125g caster sugar Finely grated zest of 1 orange¼ tsp fine sea salt ½ tsp almond extract, or vanilla extract 2 eggs, at room temperature40g plain flour 125g ground almonds Icing sugar, to finishTo make the pastry, put the flour, icing sugar and salt in a food processor and pulse a few times to combine and aerate. Add the butter and lemon zest, then process to the consistency of fresh breadcrumbs
Why Portuguese red blends fly off the shelves | Hannah Crosbie on drinks
It has come to my attention that I haven’t written a column dedicated to red wine in almost two months. So sue me – it’s been hot. Mercifully, though, temperatures look to be dropping soon, so we can once again cup the bowl of a wine glass without worrying about it getting a little warmer as its aromas unfasten.The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link
Rachel Roddy’s recipe for fish baked with tomatoes, olives and capers | A kitchen in Rome
Al cartoccio is the Italian form of en papillote, meaning “contained” or “in paper”, which is an effective cooking method that traps the moisture (and flavour) released from the ingredients and creates a steamy poaching chamber – it’s a bit like a Turkish bath for food! Once out of the oven, but still sealed, the scented steam trapped in the paper returns to liquid and creates a brothy sauce. Fish with firm white or pink flesh that breaks into fat flakes is particularly well suited to cooking al cartoccio, both whole fish (cleaned and on the bone) and individual filets (estimate 110g-140g per person).When choosing fish, keep in mind our collective default to cod and haddock, both members of the so-called “big five” that make up a staggering 80% of UK consumption. Instead, look out for other species, such as hake, huss or North Sea plaice, ASC-certified Scottish salmon, sea trout or farmed rainbow trout. For more detailed and updated advice, the Marine Conservation Society produces an invaluable, area-by-area good fish guide that uses a five-tiered system to rank both “best choice” and “fish to avoid” based on the species, location and fishing method
How to turn a single egg and rescued berries into a classic British dessert
Just a single egg white can be transformed into enough elegant meringue shards to crown more than four servings of pudding, as I discovered when, earlier this year, I was invited by Cole & Mason to come up with a recipe to mark London History Day and decided to do so by celebrating the opening of the Shard in 2012. Meringue shards make a lovely finishing touch to all kinds of desserts, from a rich trifle to an avant-garde pavlova or that timeless classic, the Eton mess. As for the leftover yolk, I have several recipes, including spaghetti carbonara (also featuring salt-cured egg yolks that make a wonderful alternative to parmesan) and brown banana curd.Architect Renzo Piano is said to have sketched his original idea for the Shard on the back of a restaurant napkin. Similarly, whenever I design a more conceptual dish such as this one, I love to start by drawing it in my sketchbook, to develop an idea of what the dish will look like, and while I was drawing the angular lines of the Shard, it reminded me of a minimalist dessert I’d eaten at the seminal AT restaurant in Paris that featured grey meringue shards that seemed to me to perfectly emulate the dramatic geometry of that iconic London building
Cracker Barrel suspends remodeling plans after backlash over logo change
Cracker Barrel announced on Tuesday that it’s suspending plans to remodel its restaurants just weeks after reversing a logo change that ignited a political firestorm.The 56-year-old restaurant chain, known for southern-style cooking and country-store aesthetic, faced intense backlash last month after unveiling a rebranding effort aimed at modernizing its image. The company rolled out a new minimalist logo and plans for more contemporary interiors, and it updated menu items.The new logo replaced the brand’s image of an old man in overalls leaning against a wooden barrel with a simplified gold background and the words “Cracker Barrel” in minimalist lettering.The change was immediately met with intense outrage online from conservatives and far-right influencers who accused the company of going “woke”
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UK and US line up string of deals to build modular nuclear reactors in Britain
Bank of England urged to slow bond-selling plan to help cut record UK borrowing costs
Sainsbury’s talks to sell Argos to Chinese retailer JD.com collapse
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