Argos Belfast shop closure leaves another hole in city's retail space

Rosses Court unit is now seeking new tenant as retailer restructures

Argos has permanently closed its Rosses Court unit in Belfast

Emma Deighan Twitter Email

March 09 2021 06:47 AM

Argos has permanently closed its Belfast city centre store at Rosses Court, making it one of the first Northern Ireland casualties in the retailer's restructuring process.

Argos, which was bought by supermarket Sainsbury's in 2016, announced in November it would shut 420 standalone stores across the UK by March 2024.

Over 100 standalone Argos stores did not reopen after the first lockdown, which began a year ago - including the Rosses Court unit.

All of those stores are among the units which will close permanently.

Yesterday Argos reopened all of its stores within a Sainsbury's supermarket here, excluding Sainsbury's Argos Forestside.

It would not confirm if Forestside would close permanently and said it was "in the process of reviewing the estate and have not confirmed all closures at this stage".

In November, Sainsbury's also said it would open 150 new Argos units in Sainsbury's stores, and up to 200 in-store collection points.

It said the restructuring would save it around £600m in three years.

An Argos spokesperson said: "Our Argos store in Rosses Court Belfast has now closed and colleagues were offered opportunities to redeploy to alternative roles within Sainsbury's. Customers can continue to shop with us at our nearby stores, including our Belfast CastleCourt Argos and west Belfast Argos within Sainsbury's."

There are currently seven Argos stores in Sainsbury's supermarkets here. Northern Ireland has 13 Sainsbury's stores but Argos did not specify if the remaiing seven could launch collection points.

The closure of Rosses Court leaves another void in the city centre and sits within close proximity to Victoria Square's two-storey Topshop and Topman unit. It also shut down permanently during the present lockdown when the brand was sold to online fashion retailer ASOS.

That loss, as well as Debenhams, Miss Selfridge, Cath Kidston and other brands are expected to have a detrimental impact on the footfall in the city centre, which has prompted Retail NI and Belfast Chamber to call on the Minsters for Finance and Economy to set up a lost footfall fund for traders, who are open but have seen trade "fall off a cliff and they receive no financial support..."

Finance Minister Conor Murphy is expected to announce plans for further rates relief here when the present rates holiday ends in April while Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced an extension to the rates-free period in England to the end of June, followed by a discount until April.

Argos Belfast shop closure leaves another hole in city's retail space

Rosses Court unit is now seeking new tenant as retailer restructures

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