Former Argos executive Ian Chaplin slams deluded and arrogant Sainsbury’s following sale announcement
Last week, Sainsbury's announced it was selling Argos in a deal that will allow the retailer to concentrate on its core grocery business. It expects cash proceeds of at least £120 million from the agreement with Swift Partners, whose shareholders include Richard Pennycook - a former Co-op Group Chief Executive. It stumped up £1.4 billion for the chain back in 2016.
Pennycook said: “What attracted us to Argos is the strength of the business, with a trusted brand, loyal customers and dedicated colleagues. We believe strongly in its future and see real opportunities to invest and build on its progress.”
“Argos's combination - of a strong digital business supported by standalone stores, stores inside Sainsbury’s and Local Fulfilment Centres - gives it a distinctive position in the market and an excellent platform for growth. We hold the senior management in high regard and plan to build on its strengths, bringing additional experience and skills to complement and augment the existing team. We see clear potential to strengthen Argos’s customer proposition, digital capabilities and nationwide reach. We are all making a long-term commitment to the business and look forward to working closely with the team to deliver even more for customers, while maintaining Argos’s strong values.”
It’s a move that has been slammed by Ian Chaplin, former Head of Buying at Argos. In a LinkedIn post, he said: “Still in shock after 24 hours….. not about the long overdue sale of Argos but the words of Simon Roberts below. If ever a statement summed up the deluded arrogance of a company it is this. Simon Roberts, Sainsbury's Chief Executive, said of the decision: Sainsbury's has transformed Argos into a leading multi-channel retailer with millions of customers and thousands of talented colleagues.”
He added: “Every word is the opposite of what they actually did. They bought a leading multi-channel retailer, then through lack of respect and knowledge transformed it into a business that lost share in all categories and lost millions of customers. They let thousands of talented colleagues leave and replaced them with corporate puppets. When trying to create a core range across the two businesses they kept 80% of the Sainsbury’s products and 20% of Argos despite sales and cost price info supporting the opposite.”
Chaplin concluded: “Speaking with suppliers over the years, not one had a positive word to say about Argos under the Sainsbury ownership. To those of us lucky enough to get out in 2018/19 it was painful to watch but totally expected. To those that really needed to keep their jobs in the tough market out there it was insulting watching a business being so badly mismanaged. Hopefully the future will be a bit brighter but one walk around an Argos store today will tell you its probably too late.”
Sainsbury’s did not respond to our request for comment.
Bad deal
Fergal O Mullane, CEO and Co-founder, Validify Community, has also blasted the deal on LinkedIn.
“What frustrates me most is Argos was arguably one of the best positioned high street brands in the country to become a genuine marketplace. Established sourcing relationships. A logistics network most retailers would kill for,” he commented. “Collection points nobody else can replicate. Sainsbury's has spent recent years investing in exactly that transformation, and still sold it for a tenth of the price.”
He noted that “Cas Paton, who's actually built a marketplace business at OnBuy, said he'd have paid £150 million. That's not a throwaway comment - it's a founder looking at the same assets a supermarket board just walked away from and seeing more value in them. This is the pattern worth sitting with: strategic capability gets built inside organisations that don't have the operating model, patience or focus to capture what it's worth. Argos didn't fail. It just needed to stop being someone else's side project.”
He concluded: “Swift Partners now owns a brand with real bones. Worth watching what they build with it, now that it's finally allowed to be the main event. Makes you wonder what else is sitting inside a retailer right now, quietly waiting for the same treatment.”
2026 RTIH Innovation Awards
Multi-channel retail will be a key focus area at the 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards.
The awards are now open for entries and celebrate global retail technology innovation in a fast moving omnichannel world.
Our winners will be revealed at the 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards Ceremony, taking place at The HAC in Central London on Wednesday, 4th November.
Check out our 2025 winners here.
Our 2025 hall of fame entrants were revealed during a sold out event which took place at The HAC on 16th October and consisted of a drinks reception, three course meal, and awards ceremony presided over by award winning comedian, actress and writer Tiff Stevenson.
In his welcome speech, Scott Thompson, Founder and Editor, RTIH, said: “This is the awards’ fifth year as a physical event. We started off with just 30 people at the South Place Hotel not far from here, then moved to London Bridge Hotel, then The Barbican, and last year RIBA’s HQ in the West End.”
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Congratulations to our winners, and a big thank you to our sponsors, judging panel, the legend that is Tiff Stevenson, and all those who attended our 2025 gathering.
