Asda to open more shops at Issa brothers' petrol stations

Asda has announced plans to open nearly 230 convenience stores at petrol stations owned by the Issa brothers.

Billionaires Mohsin and Zuber Issa, who bought the supermarket giant last year, will launch 28 Asda on the Move shops this year after trialling the format at five petrol stations.

They will be rolled-out at petrol forecourts controlled by EG Group, the Issa brothers' business.

Asda said it intended to launch a further 200 stores next year.

The move will give Asda a foothold in the convenience stores market after falling behind rivals such as Tesco and Sainsbury's, which have long operated smaller format shops.

One of the first actions that the Issa brothers took after buying Asda last year with private equity firm TDR Capital for £6.8bn, was to open a small number of Asda on the Move stores.

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The supermarket said the shops would be up to 3,000 sq ft and stock up to 2,500 products. Asda will supply goods to EG Group on a wholesale basis.

Asda also announced its latest trading figures which showed that like-for-like sales fell by 0.7% between the beginning of April and the end of June.

It blamed the fall on the comparison to last year when the UK entered its first Covid lockdown and households stocked up on shopping.

Asda said that compared to two years ago, before the pandemic struck, like-for-like sales rose by 3.1%.