British supermarket chain Asda signs £600M deal with The Co-op for 132 Store Sites

British supermarket chain Asda announced the acquisition of 132 store locations from The Co-op. As reported, the deal worth £600 million will let Asda acquire 129 retail stores at petrol stations and three development sites, which currently have 2,300 staff members. All the Co-op employees who work on these sites will be transferred to Asda.

According to a Mirror report, Asda intends to create a new format in the convenience shopping industry with its new major deal. As agreed upon in the deal, Asda will pay £438 million in cash to The Co-op and will take over lease liabilities worth £162 million. The report suggested that Asda’s existing cash resources and loans from banks would finance the deal.

Asda is a British supermarket company with its headquarters in Leeds, UK, and is owned by the EG Group, which is comprised of the wealthy brothers Mohsin and Zuber Issa. After purchasing Asda for £6.8 billion in 2020, the EG Group is seeking to increase its position throughout Europe. According to estimates, the EG Group currently owns various fast food companies in the Western Hemisphere as well as 6,000 forecourts in the United Kingdom.





Commenting on their acquisition of The Co-op, Mohsin Issa said that their ambition was to grow Asda with the expectation of the convenience industry growing rapidly. The co-owner of Asda further added that the latest acquisition would help accelerate their strategy to become the UK’s leading supermarket chain.

The Co-op, officially Co-operative Group Limited, is one of the largest retail chains in Europe, employing over 65,000 people across 2500+ stores. The company said in its official statement that it was selling only 5% of its retail stores to Asda. The Co-op’s new CEO, Shirine Khoury-Haq, stated that the deal with Asda was a part of the company’s strategy to move to step out of the petrol forecourt business and focus on its core convenience business.