Asda is a United Kingdom supermarket chain which retails food, clothing and general merchandise. It became a subsidiary of the American retail giant Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, in 1999, and is the second largest chain in the UK after Tesco, having overtaken Sainsbury's in 2003. Asda is currently expanding into the Republic of Ireland.

Asda is Wal-Mart's largest non-U.S. subsidiary, accounting for almost half of the company's international sales.

Asda's marketing promotions have usually been based solely on price, with Asda promoting itself under the slogan Britain's Lowest Priced Supermarket, 11 Years Running. As a wholly owned division of Wal-Mart, Asda is not required to declare quarterly or half-yearly earnings. It submits full accounts to Companies House each October.

History

Asda Stores Limited was founded as Associated Dairies & Farm Stores Limited in 1949 in Leeds. The adoption of the Asda name occurred in 1965 with the merger of the Asquith chain of three supermarkets and Associated Dairies; Asda is an abbreviation of Asquith and Dairies, often capitalized. For a short time in the 1980s Asda Stores Ltd was a subsidiary of Asda-MFI plc following a merger between the two companies. Other companies in the group were Associated Dairies Limited, the furniture retailer MFI and Allied Carpets. After the sale of MFI and Allied Carpets the company name changed to Asda Group plc. The dairy division was sold in a management buyout and renamed Associated Fresh Foods, meaning that Asda has since had no connection with one of the firms its name was derived from.

With stores mainly based in the north of England, the newly focused food retail group expanded further south in 1989 by buying the large format stores of rival Gateway Superstores for £705 million. This move overstretched the company and it found itself in deep trouble trying to sell too many different products. As a result it was forced to raise money from shareholders in both 1991 and 1993. It revived under the leadership of Archie Norman, who later became a front bench Conservative MP. CEO from 1991, Norman was chairman of the company during the period 1996–99, and replicated the store on the basis of United States retail giant Wal-Mart, even sending protégé Allan Leighton to Bentonville, Arkansas to assess and photograph the systems and marketing which Wal-Mart had deployed.

When Norman left the company to pursue his political career, he was replaced by Leighton. Wal-Mart wanted to enter the UK market so CEO Bob Martin lobbied UK Prime Minister Tony Blair on planning issues. Asda, which at the time owned 230 stores and was in competition with Kingfisher plc, was purchased by Wal-Mart on 26 July 1999 for £6.7 billion.