Asda

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This article is about the British supermarket chain. For other uses, see Asda
(disambiguation).

Asda Stores Ltd.

Asda House in Leeds, the supermarket's headquarters

Trade name Asda

Industry Retail

Founded 19 February 1949; 73 years

ago in Knottingley, West Riding of
Yorkshire, England[1]

Founders Peter and Fred Asquith[2]

Sir Noel Stockdale[3]

Headquarters Leeds, West Yorkshire, England

Number of 633 as of 8 December 2021[4]

locations

Key people Lord Rose

(Chairman)

Products Grocery, general merchandise, financial services

Brands Brands
 Services Asda Mobile
Asda Money
George
Asda Living

 £22.90 billion (2019)[5]

Revenue

Operating income  £584.2 million (2019)[5]

Owner Mohsin and Zuber Issa

TDR Capital[6]
Walmart ("equity" investment)

Number of 145,000 (2022)[7]

employees

Divisions George, Asda Living

 Asda Mobile
Subsidiaries
 Asda Money

Website www.asda.com

A bust of co-founder Peter Asquith outside Asda House in Leeds

Asda Stores Ltd. (/ˈæzdə/) (often styled as ASDA) is a British supermarket chain. It is

headquartered in Leeds, England.[8] The company was founded in 1949 when the
Asquith family merged their retail business with the Associated Dairies company of
Yorkshire. It expanded into Southern England during the 1970s and 1980s, and
acquired Allied Carpets, 61 large Gateway Supermarkets and other businesses, such
as MFI Group. It sold these acquisitions during the 1990s to concentrate on the
supermarkets. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange until 1999 when it was
acquired by Walmart for £6.7 billion. Asda was the second-largest supermarket chain in
the United Kingdom between 2003 and 2014 by market share, at which point it fell into
third place.[9][10]
Besides its core supermarkets, the company also offers assistance for insurance and
payment services and a mobile phone provider.
In February 2021, the Issa brothers (Mohsin and Zuber) and TDR Capital acquired
Asda. Walmart retains "an equity investment" in Asda, a seat on the board and "an
ongoing commercial relationship".[11] The deal came after an acquisition
by Sainsbury's was rejected by the Competition and Markets Authority.[12][6]

Contents

 1History
o 1.1Early years
o 1.21960s and 1970s
o 1.31980s and 1990s
 1.3.1Near bankruptcy and merger prospects
o 1.42000s and 2010s: Walmart years
 1.4.1Abandoned merger with Sainsbury's
o 1.5Acquisition by the Issa brothers and TDR Capital
 2Store formats
o 2.1Asda Supercentres
o 2.2Asda Superstores
o 2.3Asda Supermarket
o 2.4Asda Living
o 2.5George stores
o 2.6Asda Essentials
o 2.7Asda Petrol
 3Brands and services
o 3.1Just Essentials by Asda
o 3.2Chosen By You
o 3.3George clothing
o 3.4Asda Mobile
o 3.5Asda Money
o 3.6Medicine
 4Distribution
 5Employee relations
 6Marketing
o 6.1Campaigns
o 6.2Energy drinks
o 6.3Ethical trading
 o 6.4Charities
 7Controversies
o 7.1Dairy price fixing
o 7.2False and misleading advertising
o 7.32013 horsemeat scandal
 8Award
 9See also
 10References
 11External links

History[edit]
Early years[edit]
The Asquith family were butchers based in Knottingley, Wakefield, West Yorkshire. In
the 1920s, they expanded their business to seven butchers shops in the area. Their
sons, Peter and Fred, later became founding members of Asda. [13]
Around the same time, a group of West Riding dairy farmers, including the Stockdale
family and Craven Dairies, joined under the banner of J.W Hindell Dairy Farmers Ltd.
The company diversified in 1949 to become Associated Dairies and Farm Stores Ltd,
with Arthur Stockdale as the managing director. [14]
1960s and 1970s[edit]
In 1963, the Asquith brothers converted an old cinema, the Queens in Castleford, into a
self-service supermarket. Another followed in the old indoor market at Edlington. Both
stores traded under the name of 'Queens'. Their next store was a purpose-built
supermarket in South Elmsall, a town in which Asda has a distribution centre to this day.
[13]

In 1965, the Asquith brothers approached Associated Dairies to run the butchery
departments within their small store chain. A merger was proposed and the Asquiths'
business was joined with Noel Stockdale's to form a new company, Asda (Asquith
+ Dairies) (capitalised from 1985).[14]
By 1967, the company had set up a store in Billingham, County Durham. By 1969, Noel
Stockdale bought out the Asquith brothers' stake and became chairman of the
company.[14]
Asda took advantage of the abolition of retail price maintenance to offer large-scale,
low-cost supermarkets. This was aided by the decision to acquire three struggling US-
owned branches in the mid-1960s of the GEM retail group. The Government Exchange
Mart stores in Preston, Lancashire, Cross Gates, Leeds and West
Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, had accumulated losses of £320,000 and offered to sell the
stores for 20% of whatever Asda could recoup as losses from the Inland Revenue. They
received the whole amount back. The rent was only 10 shillings (50p) per square foot
on a 20-year lease, with no rent reviews, Asda increased GEM's £6,000 per week sales
to around £60,000 per week in just six months with the new stores named as Asda. [15][16]
During the 1970s, with over 30 stores in the north of England, Asda began expanding
south, with the opening of new stores in the Estover area
of Plymouth, Devon and Gosport, Hampshire in 1977.[17] In 1978, Asda acquired Allied
Carpets.[18]
In 1982, the first London store opened in Park Royal, near Ealing. The Isle of
Dogs and Charlton, London stores followed on rapidly thereafter. [19]
1980s and 1990s[edit]
In 1984, managing director, John Hardman, made attempts to halt Asda's decline, which
included the introduction of Asda branded products. [20] In 1985, Asda merged with MFI
(Mullard Furniture Industries) and the group was renamed Asda-MFI Group plc. [21]
Asda established its headquarters at "Asda House". The site was officially opened in
1988 by the then Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher.[22]
By the end of the 1990s, the 'Asdale'-named clothing range was replaced by the
clothing ranges from the newly formed George Davies partnership with Asda.[23]
Near bankruptcy and merger prospects[edit]
With stores mainly based in the North of England, the newly focused food retail group
expanded further south in 1989 by purchasing the large format stores of rival Gateway
Superstores for £705 million. This significantly increased Asda's total selling area, but
the company had borrowed heavily in order to fund the purchase - city estimates
suggested that Asda had overpaid by around £300 million for 61 of the largest Gateway
stores, two undeveloped store sites and a distribution centre. That was far above the
net book value of the locations, some of which were poorly sited. (Asda has
subsequently relocated or rebuilt more than 30 of the original Gateway stores since the
late 1990s.) The move left the company overstretched as a result, and by 1991, it found
itself in serious financial trouble with over £1 billion of debt; compounding the situation
further was a declining customer base, which was mainly caused by Asda's focus on
moving upmarket resulting in prices rising to levels significantly higher than competitors.
[24]

Eventually, a combination of flagging profits, a tremendous debt and a loss of

customers left Asda in such an egregious financial situation that they came very close to
breaching their banking covenants; at one point, they almost entered administration.
The company's first response was to change its management; chairman John Hardman
was ousted in June 1991 and was replaced by Patrick Gillam, and Archie Norman was
appointed chief executive in October. Asda then completed a rights issue in November
1991 that raised £357 million and cut the company's debts to £668 million. In May 1992,
Asda reduced their prices back to their traditional level (5-7% below competitors) and
announced that they would eliminate over 500 management positions. In 1993, Asda
completed a second rights issue that raised a further £347 million and began selling off
some of its assets; some stores were sold to competitors, and the Allied Carpets chain
was sold to Carpetland. By 1995, the company had returned to profitability and had
virtually wiped out its debt - this is cited as one of the most successful turnarounds in
British retail history.[25]
Norman succeeded Gillam as chairman upon the latter's retirement in 1996, appointing
then-deputy Allan Leighton as chief executive, and began to remodel Asda's stores
along the lines of Walmart, the world's largest retailer.[26] Leighton travelled
to Bentonville, Arkansas to assess and photograph the systems and marketing
deployed by Walmart.[27] In 1998, following the Walmart model, Asda began opening
larger 'Hypermarket' (later 'Supercentre') stores as well as introducing pharmacies and
cafes to its stores. At the same time, merger discussions were taking place between
Asda and other retailers such as Safeway and Kingfisher plc; both collapsed without an
agreement being reached, but in 1999, a second round of discussions with Kingfisher
later reached an agreement for a £5.4 billion merger that would have both created the
United Kingdom's largest multi-category retailer and enabled Asda to begin operating
stores throughout Europe.[28]