Asda Stores Limited was founded in 1949 as Associated Dairies & Farm Stores Limited by a group of farmers from Yorkshire.
The Asda name wasn’t adopted until 1965 when the company merged with the Asquith chain of three supermarkets and Associated Dairies (Asda is an abbreviation of Asquith and Dairies).
Asda Group plc was purchased by Wal-Mart in July 1999 for £6.7 billion. At the time the company operated 230 stores in the UK.