Home Retail Group has named the boss of its Argos division, John Walden, as its new chief executive, replacing Terry Duddy who is due to step down in March.

The news came as the group released its latest results, which show strong growth on both sides of the business.  

Total sales at Argos grew by 3.6% to £1,808 million with a like-for-like sales rise by 3.8%.

 Meanwhile, total sales at Homebase grew by 2.3% to £464 million, with a like-for-like sales increase of 4.7%.

On the results, Terry Duddy commented: “We are pleased that both Argos and Homebase have delivered another period of good trading performance despite a challenging consumer environment.  In its peak trading period Argos has continued to grow internet sales, which now represent nearly half of total Argos sales. This growth was supported by a strong performance in mobile commerce sales which represented 20% of total Argos sales in the period.  This gives further reinforcement to our plan for Argos to become a digital retail leader.

“As a result of the trading performance, we now expect to achieve full year Group benchmark profits towards the top end of the current range of market expectations of £90 million to £109 million. We remain on track to deliver the investment plans in both businesses.”