A NORTH Cumbrian Argos branch will close early next year.

It has been confirmed that the Argos Extra store in Kingstown, Carlisle, will close in March 2024.

It comes as the retail chain seeks to close more of its standalone stores and focus more on the smaller in-store Argos shops that are seen in Sainsbury’s supermarkets.

It is unclear currently how many jobs are going to be affected by this closure.

A spokesperson from Argos said: “We are currently talking to our colleagues in our Carlisle Argos store, which we have made the difficult decision to close.

“We understand this will be an unsettling time for those affected and we are supporting them in every way we can, including exploring opportunities for colleagues to redeploy within Argos and Sainsbury’s.

“We regularly review our property estate and the decision to close a store is never taken lightly and is based on a range of factors.”

Argos stated that it believes its reduction in the number of standalone Argos stores, and in turn opening more Argos stores and collection points in Sainsbury’s supermarkets, makes shopping more convenient for people.

Argos also said that the Argos branch in the Sainsbury’s supermarket in Carlisle will remain open.

In July this year, there were several Argos closures across the UK.

At that time, Argos stated that there were no plans to close the Kingstown store, but added: “The transformation of our Argos estate, which has been ongoing since 2020, does not tend to see us close Argos stores in Sainsbury’s – it is focused on relocating many standalone Argos stores into our supermarkets, to enable customers to conveniently choose from thousands of home, toy and technology products from Argos while picking up their groceries.”