Asda, which stands for Associated Dairies, is the UK’s second-largest supermarket chain that sells fresh groceries and General merchandise that include non-food products such as clothes, home electronics, toys, homewares, health and beauty products. The England headquartered company was founded in 1949 and was later purchased by Walmart.
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Who owns Asda?
In the year 1999 Asda was purchased by Walmart, a US Public Limited Company and the supermarket chain remained as one of its subsidiaries ever since.
While Asda made use of the IT expertise and research of its parent company Walmart. Walmart on the other hand adopted some best operational tactics developed by Asda for their online grocery selling services. Both the company benefited by availing ng intercompany loans.
Aims and Approaches
The company serves in the industries like food, garments and other services. Asda aims to provide customers with services that not only go beyond their customers’ expectations in terms of quality and prices but also oriented towards sustainability and to reduce the effect on the environment. Under its parent company Walmart, Asda shifted its focus towards growing its online presence.
The opportunities provided by the e-commerce market encouraged Asda to start its online services under the programme Click and Collect through which the customers can avail themselves of the online shopping and delivery services. Asda’s policy was to grow physically and expand as an e-commerce site with reduced operational costs. On the other hand, they undertook diversification of their products to enlarge their brand identity.
Business model
Asda operates over 500 locations in the UK. It ensures customers with the uniformity in prices across all kinds of Asda stores whether they are small or large. The company grew its sales with strategies such as online services and shopping events on Black Fridays. The company was one of the first retailers to introduce such a shopping event on a Black Friday. The high quality, low-cost goods and their attempts to decrease the operational costs promoted their sales among the price-conscious population.
Other Products & Services
Apparels
Asda sells its apparels under the brand name George. The brand was initially created and tried in the year 1989 in certain selected stores. However, it wasn’t official until 1990 with the newly created labels replacing the old ones of the 1970s and 1980s.
The brand is popular in Argentina, Japan, Mexico, Canada, India, China, and the US and is marketed as fashion apparel at an affordable price. George has also been a participant in SCAP l( Sustainable clothing action plan) whose sole ambition is to better the sustainability of clothing throughout its lifetime by decreasing the impact on the environment.
- The company also launched its brand of mobile phone network in the year 2007 under the name Asda Mobile.
- In the year 2006, Asda launched another range of products called Asda essentials.
Services
Smart Price
The smart price introduced by Asda is their attempt to provide the consumers with a range of products that come in small quantities and the right packaging. This helps the consumers to buy anything they need at a possibly cheaper price.
Farm Stores
Farm stores is another of Asda brands that allow customers to avail themselves of good quality meat and farm produce allowing them to enjoy fresh food even on a small budget.
Little angels
Littles angels are a range of baby essentials like nappies & pants, Wipes, Toiletries, baby food, Accessories etc., for babies and toddlers.
Asda Petrol
Asda has 320 petrol stations across the UK serving up and down the country with high quality and low price fuel services. The other services of these petrol stations include air pumps, car washing facilities and a convenience store that has refreshments, magazines and hot drinks for those who stop by these stations.
The Asda Fuels ranked as the cheapest providers of Fuel for 5 consistent years. For this, Asda maintains a dedicated fleet of tankers to ensure the quality is maintained from the refinery to the pumps. The refiners have strict quality checking systems that make sure the fuel meets British standards. However, the fuel meets the World Fuels Charter Standards that exceed the British standards (National) and European requirements as well.
Financial Services
The financial services provided by Asda include car insurance, credit card services and international payments, foreign currency exchange etc., Asda isn’t directly involved in providing these services but uses the product supplier/service supplier of that particular product through telephonic or online application. There is a financial service coordinator who manages the promotion and legal compliance of the products. Some stores have their financial services coordinated in house.
Wrapping up
As of 2019, the Walmart-owned company generated a revenue of £22,899.2m with an operating profit of £584.2m. Hope this article answered everything about Asda. To read more such interesting articles, head to Zeen blog.
