A second Argos store is planned for Spalding.
An Argos Insert – designed for click and collect digital customers of bulkier items – is expected to be developed within Homebase in Westlode Street.
At 185 square metres, the proposed new store would occupy little more than five per cent of Homebase’s retail floorspace. The Insert would sell fewer than 3,000 of the usual 15,000 lines of a typical Argos.
If it goes ahead, the store would create 15 jobs.
There are no implications for the existing car parking, access and servicing arrangements, all of which would remain unchanged.
And the current Argos store in Holland Market would remain unaffected.
GR Planning Consultancy Ltd, which is handling the planning application on behalf of Home Retail Group, which owns both Argos and Homebase, said: “HRG are firmly committed to this [Holland Market] store which is held on a long lease with an end date of 8th September 2021.
“It meets the businesses’ requirements for a town centre Argos store. A second store within this centre would simply not be viable, it would compete directly with the existing store, duplicate its offer and result in the closure of the existing store.”
Home Retail Group has applied to South Holland District Council for a variance of the planning condition under which the Homebase store operates. Essentially, it would enable Argos Insert to sell goods currently not allowed to be sold in Homebase.
A number of Insert stores already operate in Homebase stores including Exeter, Leicester, Cardiff and Glasgow.
Explaining why a second town centre store in Spalding would not be viable, GR Planning Consultancy Ltd said: “The costs of fitting out and trading from a new town centre store are significant in themselves when compared to those of the proposed Insert.
“The property savings are particularly significant in that an Insert will not incur any lease costs, annual rent, business rates or property maintenance costs.
“For all these reasons a new town centre store needs to achieve a significantly higher level of turnover for it to be commercially viable.”
It added: “Even if there was no existing Argos store within Spalding Town Centre and there was an available unit within that centre, the reality is that it would not be suitable or viable for the proposed Insert.”
The planning application is due to be determined by March 4.
