Asda to launch Express convenience stores

theguardian.com:

Asda is opening is first convenience stores outside a petrol station as its new owners search for ways to expand the UK’s third largest supermarket chain and overtake Sainsbury’s.

The two Asda Express stores – in Sutton Coldfield, near Birmingham, and Tottenham Hale, north London – will open before Christmas with 30 sites planned over the coming year.

Asda said it hoped to capitalise on an expected 13% increase in the convenience store market by 2027 to £50bn with an attempt to overtake Sainsbury’s to become the UK’s second largest grocer.

Sainsbury’s has been in second place since 2019 but is less than 1% ahead of its smaller rival in terms of market share, according to analysts at Kantar.

The two, which were blocked from merging by the UK’s competition watchdog three years ago, have long vied for the No 2 spot.

The shift into convenience stores in residential areas came after Asda’s new owners, EG Group, said it planned to open 200 Asda On the Move convenience sites on its petrol forecourts. Asda is also acquiring 132 convenience stores from the Co-op.

Asda has historically focused on large stores. It made a foray into smaller supermarkets in 2010 when it bought Netto’s 200-strong UK chain for more than £750m but these outlets were much larger than the planned Asda Express stores.

Asda is belatedly entering an highly competitive arena, in which Tesco’s Express and One Stop chains, Sainsbury’s Local, Little Waitrose and the Co-op vie for custom with the likes of McColl’s and thousands of independents, many of which trade under brands such as Londis, Spar and Budgens.

Morrisons, the UK’s fifth largest supermarket behind Aldi, has been expanding into the market, supplying independents under the Morrisons Daily banner, after an