Argos has announced it has opened two new regional fulfilment centres in Reading and Birmingham in an attempt to boost its home delivery capacity.

In a statement, Argos said of its new regional fulfilment centres (RFCs): “Each new RFC is c.100,000 sq. ft., increasing Argos’s total RFC space to 250,000 sq. ft. The RFCs process orders for same/next day delivery to customers’ homes and to stores for customer collection and they complement Argos’s seven Distribution Centres and extensive hub store network.”

John Rogers, Argos CEO, said: “Our new Reading and Birmingham sites increase our Fast Track capacity across the UK significantly, which means we can get more products to more customers more quickly. Six million more households now have access to an increased range of 35,000 products, delivered to a location of their choice within 24 hours. This is great timing for customers with Black Friday and Christmas just around the corner. We expect the two new sites to process more than a million items in time for Christmas.”

If you remember from 2016 one of the main reasons that Sainsbury’s targeted Argos for acquisition was due to its newly created Fast Track same day delivery infrastructure. That this is being developed further using the new owners’ financial muscle is of somewhat less surprise. It will be interesting to see how Sainsbury’s develops the infrastructure in the coming months, once the change and integration process within the combined firm has bedded in.

 
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