The owner of Argos and Homebase is purchasing the intellectual property rights to the Alba and Bush trademarks for exclusive use on consumer electronics and certain other goods.

The trademarks are household names and have high awareness and purchase frequency with Argos customers, the company said. The deal is expected to be broadly earnings neutral for the year ended February 2010.

Alba Plc had planned to end the supply of these branded products; however, the acquisition will see Home Retail Group continue to offer these trademarks to its customers.

On 30 August, the group posted sales of £2.736 billion compared with £2,737 billion in the same period in 2007 while like-for-like sales were down 3 per cent at Argos and down 10.3 per cent at Homebase during the same period.