Agencies chase 4m Littlewoods

Littlewoods is holding a pitch for the 4m launch of a new home and high street shopping venture, which it will use to strike back at the newly-combined might of Argos and Great Universal Stores.

At least five agencies are understood to be pitching for the account and a decision is expected at the end of May.

Argos was planning to launch a similar venture in conjunction with Littlewoods to head off the 1.9bn hostile bid from GUS, which was finally accepted by shareholders last week.

Littlewoods’ head of media services, Tim Rogers, refuses to comment. But Yellow M, the Little- woods home shopping agency of record, is expected to take part.

The new venture is an attempt to bring Littlewoods home shopping and high street offerings closer together. In the new venture, customers will be able to order anything from the Index Extra home shopping catalogue or 135 high street Index stores from home or through the stores.

This extends the product range available to each set of shoppers – Index Extra sells fashion and Index sells a wide variety of household goods, such as electrical and DIY products.

The combined service will enable shoppers to order items over the phone then pick them up from shops.