The name came from Associated Diaries, founded by a group of dairy farmers in Yorkshire in the 1920s as Hindell’s Dairies.
ASDA expanded into food processing and in 1949 went public.
In 1965 it formed a new subsidiary, ASDA stores, to provide an outlet for their farm produce.
Its first store opened in the same year and since then, it has specialized in bulk selling at low prices.
The company pioneered large out of town superstores at a time when these were strongly resisted by established shop-keepers and planning authorities.
As other supermarkets moved upmarket in the 1970s and 1980s, ASDA remained relatively focused on low prices.
ASDA then expanded into the South of England in the 1970s and 1980s. By 1980 ASDA operated over 70 stores.
In 1991, it bought another 61 stores from Gateway.
In the recession of the early 1990s, ASDA was in the brink of collapse until the introduction of aggressive marketing practices to back up the stores’ pledge.
Wal-Mart paid £7 billion to take over ASDA in 1999. In 2004, it offered around 25,000 lines of food and non-food.
ASDA
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