Self-Reflection: Sainsbury's Acquisition of Argos and Market Impact

This essay presents a self-reflective analysis of Sainsbury's acquisition of Argos, a major supermarket chain in the United Kingdom. It examines the strategic alliance between the two companies, highlighting the different types of acquisitions and the potential benefits for both firms, including improved efficiency, reduced competition, and economies of scale. The analysis explores Sainsbury's motivations for acquiring Argos, such as increasing its retail industry size, leveraging technology to enhance customer experience, and protecting its market position. The essay also touches on the competitive landscape, the integration process, and the importance of online sales. It concludes by emphasizing the need for Sainsbury's to focus on key business activities and maintain Argos's online presence to gain a competitive advantage and improve profitability. Desklib is your go-to platform for accessing similar solved assignments and a wealth of study resources.

Running head: SELF-REFLECTION
Self-Reflection
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

1SELF-REFLECTION
Introduction
The entire presentation has been done on Sainsbury’s that is the largest supermarket
chain based and situated in United Kingdom. From the details, I have been able to analyze
that the respective supermarket has acquired more than 16.9% share in the entire sector of
supermarket and Argos has been acquired by Sainsbury in the year 1869 as well.
Furthermore, I have been able to analyze that there is strategic alliance between Argos
and Sainsbury and this has been noticed that there are four major types of acquisitions
namely vertical, horizontal, conglomerate and concentric. Lastly, Sainsbury has tried to
overtake or acquire Argos in such a manner that the company has been able to maintain their
competitive position effectively in the entire market and this has helped the company in
managing their sales and profit ratios in an effective manner as well.
Different Acquisitions of Sainsbury
Additionally, I have come to understand that the horizontal kind of acquisitions have
different kinds of benefits to both the firms namely Argos and Sainsbury that included to
improve the overall efficiency, reduced the external kind of competition along with the
economies of scale as well (Vele Cristian-Liviu 2013). It has been noticed that Sainsbury has
bid for Argos for different kinds of reasons that included that this will help Sainsbury in
increasing the size of retail industry, to utilize the technology as to improve the overall
experience of the different customers in an effective manner as well. Furthermore, this will
help in protecting their overall market position as well.
Furthermore, this will create leading food and non-food retailer of the choice of the
customers wherein it has been seen that more than 2/3 of the households in United Kingdom
have shopped at Sainsbury over the last few years. Furthermore, it has been noticed that more
than 2/3 of the households in United Kingdom shopped at Argos over the last one year and

2SELF-REFLECTION
more than 40% of the population of UK have shopped in both Argos and Sainsbury. It has
been seen and I have noticed from the case study that the main ambition of Sainsbury was to
increase their market share in the entire economy and this will help them in increasing the
market share through acquiring Argos appropriately with the usage of matrix (Karen Gately
2017).
It has been noticed that the organization Sainsbury will be in a position to offer more
than 10000 kinds of products from more than 2000 stores and from the graph below it can be
seen that there have been huge swings in the share price of Sainsbury in the past few years as
well. Furthermore, Sainsbury has started using different technology as to improve the
customer service in an efficient manner. The main plan of Sainsbury is to use the technology
in different ways as this will benefit both the customers along with the retailer (Verbeke
2013).
Usage of Technology by Sainsbury
It has been analyzed that the different retailers in the entire competitive market had
plans to introduce the electronic shopping lists as to make the entire shopping experience
more affordable and easy for the different individuals in the entire competitive economy. I
feel that Sainsbury needs to adopt the different kinds of digital or online shopping platform
for the different customers in the market as this will help them in managing the experience of
the customers and help the customers in gaining more competitive advantage in the entire
market that is competitive in nature.
Market Position
I felt that during the time of purchase, the entire retail industry was experiencing the
reduced amount of profitability and sales in the market. I have analyzed that as per the CEO
of Sainsbury, the entire industry of supermarket was becoming competitive and successful in

3SELF-REFLECTION
the present scenario and this caused huge competitiveness for Sainsbury as they were not
being able to cope up with such differences in an easy manner as well.
Furthermore, it has been noticed that the operators were different in nature and it was
seen that since Sainsbury has acquired Argos in the entire competitive market, they have
gained the defending position in the competitive market and this led to more stiff kind of
competition in the entire economy as well in the entire retail industry as well.
Integration of Argos by Sainsbury
It has been analyzed that in order to assess the best way and manner in which
Sainsbury has been able to acquire and integrate with Argos include that the respective matrix
can be used by Sainsbury in order to analyze the strategic interdependence and need for the
entire organizational autonomy. Furthermore, it has been seen and noticed that there are
major factors that will help in deciding the different kinds of score that is gained or lost. The
different acquisition integration approaches are required to be analyzed by Sainsbury that
includes preservation, absorption, holding and symbiosis.

4SELF-REFLECTION
Conclusion
Therefore, it can be concluded that the entire retail industry in the market of United
Kingdom is towards the downwards trend with the other leading players in the competitive
market. Furthermore, it has been seen that the companies or the retail companies in the UK
market are reporting reduced kind of sales along with profits that is affecting their brand
image in the entire economy.
It has been noticed that Sainsbury needs to continue focusing on the key business
activities as this will help the company in gaining more competitive advantage and focus
more on gaining profitability in the economy as well. Lastly, while maintaining the business
activities and processes of Argos, it is essential in nature for the company to record their
online sales in the market and this will help the company in managing the different sales and
profitability or losses in an effectual manner. Lastly, it has been seen that the company has
recorded online sales during the period of Christmas in the year 2015 and this will help in
managing the different kinds of issues in an effective manner.

5SELF-REFLECTION
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