A Leeds-rooted UK supermarket and convenience retailer, known for low prices and the George clothing brand.
Asda is a British supermarket group. It runs supercentres, superstores, supermarkets, smaller convenience formats, petrol filling stations, depots and online shopping. Its corporate site says more than 18 million people shop with Asda every week and that its stores serve 98 percent of UK homes. Its George brand was the first supermarket clothing brand, created after George Davies was asked to design a range for Asda in 1989 and launched in 1990.
The name comes from the first two letters of Asquith and Dairies. On 3 May 1965 Asda was born from the Asquith family, who ran butchers in Knottingley in West Yorkshire, and a group of Yorkshire dairy farmers, including Noel Stockdale, whose Associated Dairies company had been formed in 1949. The company says the Asquiths opened the UK's first self-service supermarket in Castleford in 1963. Asda became the first food store to sell general merchandise in 1966, a first discounted petrol station followed in 1967, and the 100th store opened in 1981. A new Leeds headquarters opened in 1988.
Asda's corporate site did not give a formal mission or values statement, and we found none on its careers pages. The closest it comes is a stated aim, on its careers site, to become the lowest price full service supermarket in the country, along with talk of listening to customers and new ideas. The careers site also says the company celebrated opening its 1,000th store in 2024, and describes growth in convenience and foodservice, including taking on EG Group UK and some Co-op stores.
The business is run from the UK, with its roots and long-standing headquarters in Leeds, and a Companies House record exists for Asda Stores Limited. The careers site says Asda is a Disability Confident Employer and holds an Armed Forces Covenant badge. It also says Asda won a Grocery Aid gold award in 2023 and was named Best Value Retailer by The Grocer for the seventh year running. These are the company's own claims.
Roles on the careers site include service colleagues, online managers, store managers, customer services operations managers and customer delivery drivers, and the business also runs depots and petrol stations, so logistics and forecourt jobs exist alongside store work. The pages did not state a colleague total, so check before quoting one. Ownership has changed over the years, including a Walmart period from 1999, and Asda's own history page says that in October 2024 TDR Capital owned 67.5 percent, Mohsin Issa 22.5 percent and Walmart 10 percent.
Website: corporate.asda.com
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