ASDA-WAL-MART SUPERCENTERS SET FOR U.K.

JON SPRINGER

LEEDS, England -- Asda Group here said last week it would open supercenters in Britain under the Wal-Mart banner for the first time since being purchased by the Bentonville, Ark.-based retailer.

A new Asda-Wal-Mart Supercenter is set to open in Bristol in July, Nick Agarwal, a spokesman for Asda, told SN. The store, which is to replace a current Asda supermarket at the same location, will reserve half its floor space for groceries and half for general merchandise. The current store devotes about 70% of its floor space to groceries, Agarwal said.

"It's a new concept for retailing here," he said. "It combines the best of Wal-Mart with the best of Asda."

The Bristol store, which will have between 90,000 and 100,000 square feet of selling space, is the first of 10 supercenters the company plans to open over the next five years, he added. Asda plans to convert two more Asda stores to Asda-Wal-Mart Supercenters by year-end.

Wal-Mart purchased Asda last summer for $10.8 billion, topping a $10 billion offer from Britain's Kingfisher chain. Soon after, Asda launched an aggressive "price rollback" program to bring its pricing in line with Wal-Mart's U.S.operations. The moves sparked a "price war" in England between Asda and its supermarket competitors.

The addition of the supercenter concept will allow Asda to take on more general-merchandise and drug retailers directly, Agarwal said, including Boots, Kingfisher and B&Q.

The store will be the first to carry the Wal-Mart banner in the United Kingdom. "Our stores now say they are part of the Wal-Mart family," Agarwal said, "but the typeface is quite small."