Asda

ASDA Stores Limited
	ASDA logo
Company type	Subsidiary of Wal-Mart
Industry	Retail
Founded	Yorkshire, England (1965)
Headquarters	Leeds (head office)
Key people	Andy Bond, Chief Executive
Products	Grocery, General merchandise, financial services
Revenue	estimated > £15 billion (not disclosed by parent)
Number of employees	128,000 (2005)
Website	www.asda.co.uk

ASDA is a chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom offering food, clothing and general DTV the mid teens and, as of 2005, the gap is widening. Asda, however, retains a firm hold on second place with Sainsburys unable to match their lower prices or those of Tesco.

ASDA is Wal-Mart's largest overseas subsidiary, accounting for almost half of the company's international sales. ASDA's precise turnover is not disclosed, but based on market share it is thought to be in excess of £15 billion. As of May 2005, ASDA had 265 stores and 19 distribution centres, employing 128,000 people. The company is also engaged in property development through its subsidiary company, Gazeley Properties Limited.

ASDA is secretive about financial details and does not make its profit and loss figures public, a situation made possible by its position as a wholly owned division of Wal-Mart.

History

ASDA was founded in 1965 by a group of farmers from Yorkshire. The name is a contraction of Associated Dairies. The company went through a troubled period in the early 1990s, but was then revived under the leadership of Archie Norman, who later became a front bench Conservative MP. He was chairman of the company during the period 1996–99.

File:ASDA edinburgh store.jpg

ASDA Supercentre store in Edinburgh

ASDA, which then owned 229 stores, was purchased by Wal-Mart of the United States, on July 26, [[DTV In October 2004 ASDA launched a new format called 'Asda Living'. This is the company's first 'general merchandise' store, containing all its non-food ranges including clothing, home electronics, toys, homewares, health and beauty products. The first store with this format opened in Walsall, West Midlands in October 2004, and at the time of writing has been followed by three further stores in Cortonwood (Barnsley), Altrincham and Byker (Newcastle-upon-Tyne). A fifth has now opened in Thurrock, Essex. Tesco is also trialling a similar format, "Homeplus", in Denton, Greater Manchester. Asda has also opened a number of stores containing its George range only in several city centres.

ASDA is currently expanding its range of services to include Financial Services sold in store and at www.asda.com. Products currently sold are Car, Home, Travel, Life and Pet Insurance, Child Trust Funds and Credit Cards.

Unlike Tesco and Sainsbury's, ASDA does not operate convenience stores, a position it shares with the fourth major British supermarket chain Morrisons.

Marketing

ASDA is known for two famous marketing campaigns. In the "ASDA price" campaign, customers tap their trouser pockets, producing a 'chinking' sound as the coins that Asda's low prices have supposedly left in their pockets knock DTV ecially Teasco.

ASDA has been winner of the Grocer Magazine "Lowest Price Supermarket" Award for the past 8 years, and uses this to promote itself across the UK. In August 2005, rival supermarket chain Tesco challenged ASDA's ability to use the claim that it was the cheapest supermarket in the country, by complaining to the Advertising Standards Agency. The ASA upheld the complaint 1 and ordered ASDA to stop using it, citing that the Grocer Magazine survey was based on limited and unrepresentative evidence, and that the survey did not study low-cost supermarkets such as Aldi. As a result ASDA no longer cites itself as "Officially Britain's lowest priced supermarket", instead using "Winner: Britain's lowest price supermarket award".

Employee Satisfaction

Early in 2006 the company was found to be in breach of the UK employment law with regard to trade unions and has been fined by a court £850,000. They were also in trouble for asking some Asian employees to produce their passports proving they can work in the UK. This action has led to investigations into claims of racism.

ASDA has featured prominently in lists of "Best companies to work for", appearing in second place in the Times newspaper list for 2005. It offers staff a discount of 10% on all items.

In 2005, the company was criticised by some of its employees for the treatment their fellow workers received in both stores and depots across the country. In late 2005 it was revealed in a survey carried out by the company that only 1 in 4 of its staff actually shopped in-store.

On an 'extra discount day' in December 2005, ASDA temporarily increased the staff discount to 20%, but excluded beers, wines and spirits ('BWS') from the extra discount for reasons of 'operational profit protection'. The GMB Union attempted to get Tesco to offer a similar discount to ASDA staff as a publicity stunt, and ASDA subsequently included BWS in the extra discount, but with a maximum spend of £100.

Wal-Mart's US operation has come under scathing attack regarding the treatment of its workforce with the release of a movie by a prominent Hollywood producer, Robert Greenwald, which parodies the company's claims that it is an employee friendly, ethically minded company, and works in support of local communities. Walmart has responded with a film of its own, promoting working practices within the company.

Online

ASDA launched its online retailer service in 1998 but was somewhat more cautious about expanding it than Tesco or Sainsbury's. It uses the store based model rather than servicing internet customers direct from its depots. In May 2005 it announced a major expansion of the service which will increase coverage from 30% of the UK population to 60%.

George Clothing

ASDA has its own range of clothing known as George. This is marketed as quality fashion clothing at affordable prices. Wal-Mart also sells the George brand in Germany, the United States, Canada and South Korea. Recently a trial has begun of a standalone George store on the high street, which is expected to be expanded nationwide if it is a success. The George label is named after George Davies, founder of Next, who went on to set up the Per Una clothing business for Marks & Spencer.

In 2005, it was announced that ASDA had overtaken Marks & Spencer as the UK's number one clothing retailer by volume of sales. This has recently been contradicted by a poll that puts rival value fashion retailer Primark in the number one slot, with ASDA in third or fourth place.

Awards

2001, 2002, 2003 — Voted a top 10 UK employer by the Sunday Times Top 100 Best Employers Survey
2002 — Nestlé Social Commitment Award, awarded by peers in the food industry

External links