About Us

Welcome to Argos, part of Home Retail Group.

Home Retail Group is the market leader in the home and general merchandise market. More information on Home Retail Group can be found on its corporate website, www.homeretailgroup.com (this is a separate website and will open a new window), including sections on investor relations, media centre, corporate responsibility and careers.

Here, you can read a brief introduction to Argos, understand our corporate responsibility policies and learn a little about our charitable partner.

About Argos

Founded in 1973, Argos is a unique catalogue retailer recognised for choice, value and convenience. It sells general merchandise and products for the home from over 35 stores in the Republic of Ireland and over 690 stores in the UK with total sales of £4.3 billion in the last financial year.

Argos opened its first stores in the Republic in January 1996 in Limerick, Nutgrove and Dublin. In 2005, Argos launched its Irish website, www.argos.ie, which now has over 20,000 products online.

Argos is already one of the largest retail employers in the country with around 1,400 employees.

More information on Argos can be found on www.homeretailgroup.com (this is a separate website and will open a new window).

Corporate responsibility (‘Responsible retailing’)

Details of our corporate responsibility policy can be found on www.homeretailgroupcr.com (this is a separate website and will open a new window). The site includes information on:

• ‘keeping clean and green’ - how we deal with environmental issues such as waste management and energy consumption
• ‘shopping for tomorrow’ – we are extending our product range to help you make more responsible choices, conserve resources and save money
• ‘sourcing with care’ – we provide details of our timber sourcing policy; chemical strategy and ethical trading conditions in our supply chain
• ‘being a good neighbour’ – how we support the local and national communities in which we operate

These are just some of the practical ways in which we try to be socially, ethically and environmentally responsible

Easier shopping for customers with disabilities

We're committed to making our stores and services accessible to everyone. If you need any help shopping with us, please give us a call on 0044 845 640 3030 or ask in store and we'll do everything we can to make things easier. You can also contact our 'minicom' service on 0044 845 640 0755 but you will need a text phone to access this service.

Argos and recycling

Catalogues

With your help, we’re reducing the impact our business has on the environment

Did you know:

• Your Argos catalogue is 100‰ recyclable
• We source* the paper from sustainably managed forests and controlled sources
• Our old catalogues are particularly sought after by newspaper print manufacturers

We'd love as many old catalogues as possible to be recycled, so when you're ready to pick up your new catalogue, please recycle your old one. You can visit your local recycling point or return it to your nearest store where we will be happy to recycle it for you.

You can find out more about recycling by visiting www.epa.ie/environment/what/waste/ (this is a separate website and will open a new window).

Waste packaging

Most waste packaging can be recycled. www.epa.ie/environment/what/waste/ (this is a separate website and will open a new window)has got lots of tips on what to do with waste packaging. Cardboard boxes are easy to squash flat and recycle!

Carrier bags

Please reuse your carrier bags as often as possible and when you've finished with them, look out for a local recycling scheme or dispose of them safely so that they don't cause a litter problem.

Battery recycling

Waste batteries including rechargeable batteries (of a type sold by Argos) can be taken back free of charge to any Republic of Ireland Argos Store. Look out for the special container in our stores. You don’t have to make a purchase when returning old batteries. All waste batteries must be recycled and shouldn't be placed in your waste disposal or recycling bins, so do make sure that you always recycle all your old batteries

Electrical products

Argos helps to ensure that electrical and electronic waste is collected and recycled in a responsible manner. The price you pay at the till for electrical products in-store includes a contribution to a producer recycling fund (PRF) which helps to fund the cost of the collection and recycling of waste electrical equipment. These extra contributions are listed on our PRF page. The contributions to the producer recycling fund which are published in our catalogue are correct at the time of going to press. These contributions are set by an industry body, known as the 'WEEE Register' Ltd. If the Register makes changes to the contributions after the catalogue has been published we will let you know in-store.

You may dispose of your old electrical items free of charge by returning them to any Republic of Ireland Argos store, subject to the following conditions:

• For every product to be disposed of free of charge, you must purchase a new electrical item from Argos
• The electrical item to be disposed of must be of an equivalent type or have the same function to the item purchased, e.g. a kettle for a kettle
• The disposed electrical item must not present a health and safety risk to the store staff
• Some products are excluded from this offer, e.g. household lighting
• You can return your old electrical item up to 15 days from the date of purchase of the new item, or if it was delivered to you, up to 30 days from the date of purchase
• You must show the original receipt for your new electrical item when returning the old electrical item in-store
• Business customers are excluded from this offer
• If you are having a large electrical appliance delivered we will usually give you at least 24 hours notice of delivery of the new appliance, and at the same time offer to take away the old disconnected appliance, on the same day. If we do not give this notice, then we will arrange a collection within 15 days. If we give notice and your appliance is not ready, or you decline the collection, you have up to 30 days to return it yourself to the Store for disposal

Before you decide to dispose of your old electrical equipment, please make every effort to arrange for its re-use, especially if it is still in working order.

Mobile phones

Argos has teamed up with to give cash or store credit for recycling old mobile phones.

Argos has become the first company in the Republic of Ireland to offer members of the public the opportunity to recycle their old mobile phones for either cash or credit to spend in any Argos store. At the same time, Envirofone will make a donation to The Irish Hospice Foundation, an organisation that supports the development of hospice care.

Launched originally in the United Kingdom, Envirofone aims to increase the number of mobile phones recycled every year in the Republic of Ireland and, at the same time, reduce the amount of phones sent to landfill every year.

Users of Envirofone.com receive either a cheque for the phone value or credit to spend at any Argos store worth an additional 15 per cent value when they trade their old mobiles online.

For more information simply:

• Collect an envelope in-store and send your old mobiles for recycling
• Trade in your old mobile online at Envirofone.com to get cash or credit (see Related Internet Links section above)

(NOTE: Trade in for cash or credit is only available online. Mobiles sent in the pre-paid envelopes will be either recycled or reused - a donation will still be made to The Irish Hospice Foundation.)

Argos in the community

Argos employees are proud to support Heart Children Ireland as their chosen partner in Ireland until July 2010.

Heart Children Ireland is a support group for parents and families of children born with a Heart Defect. This is the most common of all birth disorders affecting one in every 100 children born in Ireland. Heart Children Ireland provides vital life saving equipment and, also funds specialist nurses. We provide an information help line, counselling services, a quarterly magazine, to advance the particular needs of our children and their families within the hospital setting and also within the wider social arena.

Argos employees hope their customers will help them to raise funds to enable Heart Children Ireland to continue to offer support to children who suffer from Heart Defects. Look out for fundraising activities in your local Argos, or to make a donation to Heart Children Ireland, simply tick the box on the selection slip in-store and 20c will be added to your total. Visit www.heartchildren.ie for more information

Charitable Policy

Argos supports many long term projects across the UK and ROI, working with many different kinds of charitable and not for profit organisations.

We have taken this approach because we believe that the best way for us to help to make a real and lasting difference to the community projects and causes that we support is for us to work in partnership with them on approved projects. This approach enables us to get the maximum benefit from our support and to provide an enduring legacy for those projects.

Our policy therefore is not to support general requests for donations for either vouchers or gifts in kind.

If you would like a full explanation of our policies or to read more about some of the major projects we have been able to support, further details are available in our group's Corporate Responsibility Report (this is a separate website and will open a new window).