Two of a planned 20 Asda Express convenience stores announced this week will be on forecourts, says the parent supermarket business.
As part of a four-week expansion programme starting late October, the sites at Crystal Palace in south London, and Horncastle in Lincolnshire, will bring Asda’s forecourt estate to 471 Express petrol filling stations.
Asda Express stores typically stock up to 3,000 branded and own-label products for customers looking for top-up shops, grabbing lunch on the go, or seeking ingredients to cook dinner from scratch.
Asda says that the stores’ wide choice and value prices have “struck a chord” with shoppers, with its Express network outperforming the wider convenience market with a like-for-like sales growth of 8.6% in quarter two of this year.
In what is a resumed expansion for the business, Asda aims to grow its footprint in high-footfall urban areas, residential locations and transport hubs – sites where the retailer has limited presence.
This latest rollout of mainly standalone convenience stores follows the integration of 469 convenience/fuel sites acquired from The Co-op in October 2022, and EG Group a year later.
EG Group was founded by brothers Zuber and Mohsin Issa. The brothers both also had shares in Asda when it bought most of EG Group’s UK forecourts.
Mohsin Issa retains a 22.5% share in the Asda group, with TDR Capital having a 67.5% stake, and Walmart, 10%. Zuber Issa sold his share in Asda last year to fund his UK forecourt business, EG On The Move.
