Home Retail, the household goods retailer, said quarterly sales at its main Argos business fell, blaming waning demand for key electrical goods such as TVs and tablet computers.

Sales at Argos stores open for more than a year fell 3.9 per cent in the 13 weeks to May 30, its fiscal first quarter.

That compares with analysts’ consensus forecast of a decline of 3.7 per cent, and a 5 per cent fall in the final eight weeks of the 2014-15 year.

Home Retail had cautioned in April first half sales at Argos would likely decline this year as it works through revamps to the business. The group, which also runs do-it-yourself chain Homebase, is transforming its larger, more profitable Argos arm from a catalogue-based retailer into a digital business, targeting higher sales from mobiles and tablet PCs and making collections faster and easier.

Argos’ total sales fell 2.6 per cent to £846 million with internet sales representing 44 per cent of that total.

“We continue to expect that sales will be challenging during the first half at Argos, but we look forward to a stronger second half as we progress the transformation plan and introduce new propositions more broadly to the market,” said chief executive John Walden.

Like-for-like sales at Homebase rose 5.4 per cent, much better than analysts’ average forecast of a 0.8 per cent fall, helped by growth across big ticket and seasonal categories as well as stock clearance sales related to the business’ store closure programme.

Total Homebase sales fell 1.6 per cent to £438 million. – Reuters