Asda commits to investment and NI growth

The firm is also actively looking for further development opportunities in the province but rates remains a key issue for supermarkets and the retail sector s issue.

That was the view of Asda CEO Andy Clarke whose day-long visit to the province took him from the shopfloor at the firm’s Dundonald store to the offices of the First and Deputy First Ministers and one Mrs Foster’s first official meetings since assuming her new role.

After 10 years of successful retailing in Northern Ireland, Mr Clarke said he was pleased with the performance of the region’s 17 stores which as a region outperform the rest of the UK stores.

News of the £3m investment comes after Mr Clarke pledged an additional £500m investment in lowering prices as he predicted another year of intense pressure for supermarket retailers against a turbulent global economic backdrop.

“We’ve enjoyed 10 years of strong retailing here and look forward to more growth in the future,” he said.

“There’s no doubt that the retail sector as a whole has permanently changed to reflect the shopping habits of customers today.

“But we know our customers better than anyone else and we need to structure our offer to meet their changing needs. This knowledge has shaped our plans to make our bigger stores easier to shop, laying them out in a way that’s relevant to today’s customers by removing fringe, marginal ranges and providing services that they need. We call this Project Renewal and the £3m investment is specifically designed to continue to meet the demands of our customers in Northern Ireland”

According to the data from market analysts, Kantar, Asda’s NI market share grew to 17.4%, an increase of 2.2% YOY, with online growth showing a marked increase of 22.5% YOY – equating to 5.9% of total sales.