Asda branches out into Northern Ireland

Supermarket group Asda unveiled plans today for its first stores in Northern Ireland after agreeing to buy 12 Safeway sites from Morrisons for £73m (€108.3m).

Asda, which has 279 stores, said it would invest £30m (€44.5m) on refurbishing the outlets and will also take on 250 additional staff by Christmas.

The sale of the stores had been expected following the £3bn (€4.5m) acquisition of Safeway by Morrisons last year. The Bradford-based chain wants to concentrate on its mainland network as it looks to iron out recent problems with the integration of the Safeway stores and its distribution network.

Asda chief executive Andy Bond said the store openings would bring “real competition” to the Northern Ireland grocery market.

He added: “Opening our first ever stores in Northern Ireland is a very exciting prospect for us and great news for local shoppers.”

The deal, which also includes four development agreements, still needs clearance from the Office of Fair Trading. Asda expects the conversion of all Safeway stores to take around three months from when the transaction is completed, which is likely to come in September.

The Wal-Mart-owned chain added that its prices would be no higher than its stores in England, Wales and Scotland and that it would continue to work with all of Safeway’s existing Northern Irish product suppliers.

Asda already works with a number of suppliers in Northern Ireland, with its half-fat cheese produced by dairy farmers in conjunction with Fayrefield in Belfast.

Many of the new jobs will be created from the introduction of Asda’s George clothing range and the introduction of more general merchandise.

The 12 stores are at Ballyclare, Bangor, Coleraine, Cookstown, Dundonald, Enniskillen, Kilkeel, Newtonards, Omagh, Strabane and Shore Road and Westwood in Belfast.