UK supermarket chain Asda is looking for sites to base up to 300 home stores in the UK, following rising sales in its non-food departments. The Wal-Mart owned retailer operates 12 Asda Living stores and aims to hit the 20 mark within the next 12 months.
The initiative is part of a huge sales drive by Asda’s chief executive Andy Bond to beat Sainsbury’s in the battle for sales and success. Bond, who was given the go-ahead to open 300 Living stores from parent company Wal-Mart, is understood to be confident he can beat the sales growth target set by Sainsbury’s boss Justin King.
Sainsbury’s is reportedly embarking on a non-food sales offensive as par of plans to increase total sales by £3.5 billion over the next three years.
Bond commented, “We have avenues of growth such as Asda Living which we will expand very quickly now. There are probably 300 locations where you could have an Asda Living store.”
Findings from the latest report from retail analysts, Verdict support the company’s focus on growing sales through the expansion of its homewares arm.
The ‘How Britain Shops 2007: Homewares’, study showed that Asda increased its visitor share from 19.3 per cent to 19.6 per cent, while second-placed Tesco saw a drop in its share from 17.6 per cent to 17.3 per cent.
The first Asda Living store was opened by the supermarket group back in Northern Ireland back in February. A typical Living store dedicates around 50 per cent of its space for clothing, with 25 per cent for homewares and the last 25 per cent being made up of electrical items, toys and health and beauty products.
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