In Yeovil, a new Asda Express store is scheduled to open this week.
The location of the new store will be at the Co-op petrol station, which is now located on the A30 Sherborne Road. The store will be transformed by Asda from a Co-op to an Asda Express, and it is anticipated that the branch will open on Friday, October 27.
Asda stated earlier this month that it would be launching a project to gradually rebrand the 116 convenience stores and linked gas station forecourts it had acquired from the Co-op Group throughout the UK under the Asda Express convenience brand. One of the first 25 places to use the new brand is the Yeovil site.
“This conversion programme is an extremely exciting moment for our business and accelerates our presence in the rapidly growing convenience market,” Asda’s managing director of convenience, Andy Perry, stated. In the upcoming months, we’re excited to welcome over 2,000 former Co-op coworkers to the Asda family and to expand the amazing value of Asda’s fuel and food to many more towns around the UK.”
The newly opened Asda store in Yeovil will “stock up to 3,000 branded and own-label products to suit a broad range of customer needs including ‘top up’ shops for essential items such as milk and bread, grabbing lunch on the go or cooking dinner from scratch” . Asda claims that base prices in its existing Express stores are, on average, 8.9% less expensive than Co-ops.
In a £438 million agreement last year, Asda purchased 132 Co-op locations as part of a long-term plan to overtake its rival as the largest supermarket in the UK by entering the rapidly expanding £40 billion convenience industry. Asda consented to sell 13 locations in order to meet competition regulations, and in June, the Competition and Markets Authority granted regulatory approval for the deal.
