Asda in Netto Takeover

Asda, one of the largest supermarket chains in the UK, has announced plans to takeover Netto, the Danish discount retailer. The supermarket wants to buy up all of the company’s UK stores for £778 million. They hope to finalize the agreement this summer if the Office of Fair Trading approves the move.

Netto operates 193 UK locations, which will continued to trade under the brand for now. By the middle of next year, the stores will operate under the Asda brand. The supermarket currently owns 374 stores and plans to integrate the stores into their new supermarkets division for shops that are less than 25,000 square feet big. The average size of a Netto store is 8,000 square feet.

This is the first big move from Andy Clarke, the new chief executive of Asda, who just took over early last month. He said that they look forward to welcoming Netto’s staff into their business and having them join the team. Customers will benefit from cheaper prices on a wider range of quality products, he continued, which will be complemented with the broad range of services they offer in all their smaller locations. Creating new jobs in a difficult economy will also be a welcome boost for communities, he added.

Dansk Supermarked is currently the owner of Netto, which has operated since 1990 in the UK and has a total of 3,500 staff. Claus Juel-Jensen, the managing director of Netto, said that they have significant opportunities to grow in Northern Europe and Scandinavia. They believe that it’s the time now to focus their efforts on developing their business in these countries, he added.

Written by Peter James on June 4, 2010 · Filed Under Business, News 

Comments

One Response to “Asda in Netto Takeover”

  1. Keith Wilby on June 29th, 2010 2:34 pm

    I think this is fantastic news. Asda are without doubt the cheapest fairest, and best run supermarket chain of them all, they do not lie, and attempt to deliberatley mislead customers, as one of thier major southern competitors do.

    Besides it may save me a 20 mile round trip, as we have a Netto store in our village.

    Good luck Asda I believe you have got where you are, by treating people with respect, and not telling porkys about the prices of similar goods at other supermarkets, on the shelves. I can’t wait for the takeover