ASDA is to open 25 new shops across the UK this year as it plans major expansion of convenience stores.
The supermarket is looking to grow its offering of smaller stores in order to
Asda is planning to open its new Express stores between June and 2025.
It represents just one area of the retailer's push to return to its former glory after in February 2023.
The supermarket's wider market share has also shrunk over the past few years as it competes with renowned budget shops like .
Asda looks to compete with and Tesco – which currently hold the biggest market share of supermarkets in the UK.
The supermarket's new chairman, Allan Leighton, appears to be the driving force behind the gargantuan expansion.
He told the Telegraph: “Our job is to fix it – but not just to fix it.
“We have to build it, reset it, turn it into what it was.”
TDR Capital and Issa Brothers are to fund the expansion, with their cash going to new outlets, price reductions, and refurbishments of existing stores across the country.
The locations of the new Asda Express stores are yet to be revealed.
STORE WARS
Last Wednesday, Sainsbury's entered the growing supermarket war by announcing it will invest £1billion to improve its pricing.
It was responding to a similar vow from rivalthis month, whilesaid in March it would slash prices in a bid to turn around its fortunes.
Sainsbury’s reported that profits rose by 7.2 per cent to £1.03billion for the year.
Grocery sales grew by 4.5 per cent, while sales at its arm slipped by 2.7 per cent to £4.9billion.
With grocery proving to be the battleground, Sainsbury’s boss Simon Roberts said he will “extend food space within many of our existing stores”;.
He also plans to open 40 stores this year, a move the chain said will bring 700,000 more people within a ten-minute drive of Sainsbury’s.
AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould said: “When Asda fired the opening salvos in a UK supermarket price war, the markets immediately sat up and took notice.
“And latest updates from Tesco and now Sainsbury’s suggest this was the right call.
“The main winners in a price war would ultimately be shoppers.”;
Supermarkets will face falling revenue if the price war takes hold.
