U.K. SITE FIGHT: ASDA CONFIRMS INTEREST IN LONDONBERRY SITE
http://www.londonderrysentinel.co.uk/news/Asda-confirm-interest-in-city.4685110.jp” title="Asda confirm interest in city store [Londonberry Sentinel]">Asda confirm interest in city store [Londonberry Sentinel]
SUPERMARKET giant Asda has reaffirmed its desire to open a store in Londonderry.
Speculation has been growing since, in August of this year, the Sentinel first reported the retailer, owned by US market leader Wal-Mart, were looking at potential Londonderry store locations.
At that time the retail giant ruled out acquiring the former Desmonds factory site in Drumahoe or a green field site in the Gransha area of the city.
Then in September, Asda told the Sentinel it would not be the flagship tenant at a new 22 unit retail park planned for the Crescent Link.
Now the company’s Property Communications Manager Philip Bartram has said opening a store in Londonderry remains a viable option.
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Posted by Luke West on Wednesday, November 12 | 0 comments | Permalink
U.K. SITE FIGHT: ASDA WINS APPROVAL IN BURY ST. EDWARDS
ASDA: Final green light [Bury Free Press (U.K.)]
Construction work on the new ASDA store, in Bury St Edmunds, is to begin after a detailed application was approved by planners.
The supermarket giant already had outline permission for a store and business centre in Western Way.On Thursday, St Edmundsbury Borough Council’s development control committee approved plans outlining the size, layout and appearance of the two buildings.
The store, on track to open in the spring, will feature 6,834sqm of floorspace and 361 car parking spaces, while the business centre will have floorspace of 2,019sqm and 31 parking spaces.
Posted by Luke West on Friday, October 10 | 0 comments | Permalink
U.K. SITE FIGHT: INVERNESS TO EXAMINE ASDA PLANS
Asda welcomes inquiry support [Inverness Courier (U.K.)]
SUPERMARKET chain Asda today welcomed the support from across the local community for its proposed new store in Inverness as the date for local public inquiry draws closer.
Local residents, community councils, and MSPs are to support the plans submitted jointly by the supermarket chain and Elphinstone Land.
Lisa Rooke, property communications manager for the supermarket was pleased with support ahead of the inquiry on 20th October.
“I am delighted to see such wide endorsement from across the Inverness community,” she said. “We have had excellent feedback from the public through our consultation with the Inverness community and from local politicians.
“We look forward to the inquiry and strongly believe that a positive outcome will enable us to provide much needed supermarket choice in Inverness.”
Fergus Ewing, SNP MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, said he had been contacted by many constituents regarding the proposed store — the majority of which he said were in support.
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Posted by Luke West on Thursday, October 09 | 0 comments | Permalink
U.K. SITE FIGHT: DEVELOPER UPSET ABOUT OBJECTIONS TO ASDA DEVELOPMENT
Anti-Asda lobby ‘blocking jobs’ in Larne [Larne Times (U.K.)]
DEVELOPER Sergio McKenzie claimed this week that opponents of his proposed retail and leisure complex at Redlands are blocking jobs and contributing to the crisis in the construction industry.
Mr McKenzie said as soon as planning permission was granted work would begin “immediately” on an ASDA store, cinema and restaurants complex.
“It would create 200 construction jobs right away and 250 permanent jobs on completion,” said the Larne man.
“I have had literally hundreds of contractors and construction workers ringing my office saying their work has dried up and asking when we’ll be ready to start because they know there’s two or three years’ work ahead of us here.
“I have to tell them it’s all subject to planning permission and while the application is going well - because we’ve supplied absolutely everything that we’ve been asked for - there are people in the town who are doing everything they can to hold things up.
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Posted by Luke West on Thursday, October 09 | 0 comments | Permalink
Asda Launches New Websites to Boost Recruitment
Wal-Mart’s wholly-owned UK subsidiary, Asda, has just spent over $180,000 launching two websites recruiting employees for its stores. Unlike in the U.S., where Wal-Mart is essentially unrivaled, the U.K. retail market is extremely competitive for Asda, and the store must be having trouble hiring and retaining employees. We can’t imagine that the company’s notoriously bad labor practices have anything to do with it.
The video above, taken from one of Asda’s new websites, discusses the benefits of working at Asda (read the transcript here (PDF)). Let’s take a look at just what those benefits are.
1. “It’s not just your salary or your car allowance at all.” Benefit number one: we will pay you!
2. “We get a benefits book which gives us all our discounts on theme parks and car parking at airports and things like that, just because you work at ASDA.”
Who needs a living wage when you can get a dollar off at the airport parking garage?
3. “I think my favourite benefit at ASDA is the Sharesave Scheme.” That is, just like everyone else in the capitalist system, employees are entitled to buy shares of the company stock. In fact, we’d love it if you did: the executives’ yachts aren’t going to repaint themselves.
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Monday, September 22 | 27 comments | Permalink
U.K. SITE FIGHT: WAL-MART FACES MORE DELAYS IN BOGNOR
Further delays to Bognor’s Asda scheme [Chichester Observer (U.K.)]
Asda’s plans for a new store in Bognor Regis are likely to be considered by councillors in November.
The much-delayed proposals for the retail outlet are anticipated to go before one of the two development control committee meetings of Arun District Council that month.The latest setback to the company’s hopes of opening at Oldlands Farm off the
A29 follows a meeting its representatives held with the council’s planning officials.
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Posted by Luke West on Friday, September 12 | 0 comments | Permalink
Wal-Mart Workers in the U.K. Stand Up Against Underhanded Tactics
Wal-Mart has built a reputation cold-hearted censorship - whether it’s record albums or movies, the retailer has massive control over the content of the media it sells.
Now it seems like the practice has spread to newspapers: employees at Wal-Mart’s British stores were ordered to remove competitors’ fliers from the daily papers, and cover up certain papers when competitors ran front page ads. Unlike in the U.S., Wal-Mart is only the second largest retailer in the U.K., and has been fiercely battling other retailers for months. The employees eventually pushed back against the practice, refusing to comply with such underhanded tactics. If only everyone along the Wal-Mart supply chain had such gumption.
Asda staff expose mangers’ dirty tricks to sabotage Tesco adverts [Sunday Mail (U.K.)]
ASDA staff were ordered to take Tesco flyers out of newspapers and dump them in bins as supermarket price wars turned nasty.
But staff blew the whistle as they felt too ashamed to carry out the sneaky tactics. Red-faced Asda bosses yesterday admitted thousands of leaflets were binned at an Edinburgh store.
Workers there claimed bosses even turned down their request to put the promos in a recycling bin.
A member of staff at the capital’s Chesser store said: “One of the people in the cigarette kiosk had to take all the inserts out and bin them. He was really hacked off about it.
“The guy asked the manager if they could at least take the leaflets to the recycling bin but were told not to.”
When Tesco took out a full frontpage advert on a local paper, staff were told to cover the issue up.
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Monday, September 08 | 3 comments | Permalink
Asda Milking UK Farmers
U.K. dairy farmers are outraged over the latest price war between Wal-Mart owned Asda and rival Tesco. Last week, the grocers announced price cuts on milk, which farmers argue will devastate their industry. For farmers coping with escalating production costs, the price cuts arrive at a most inopportune moment. Asda, however, is applauding itself for its efforts, relishing in the fact that the prices are the lowest they have been since 2001.
Asda claims that the move is an investment for its customers and that it will not affect the dairy farmers. But farmers justly harbor immense skepticism, noting that the average selling price has increased from 41.2p to 51.6p per liter (a 22% rise) since 1995, while their profit margins have decreased from 24.5p to 18p per liter (a 27% decline).
According the British National Farmer’s Union, this brutal monopsony has contributed to the sharp decline in farmers – down to 2,000 from 5,000 – over the past 10 years. Ironically, while farmers have suffered, Asda’s own profit margins on milk have actually risen from 1.3p to 15.6p per liter (a 1200% increase since 1995).
Given Asda’s history of milking farmers for their profits, NFU frustrations are merited, especially in a tough economy that leaves no further room to bend to Asda and Wal-Mart’s monopsony. Traditionally, when suppliers have resisted the retail giant’s price demands, the corporation has threatened suppliers, increased the shelf space of its own brands, and discontinued the stocking of a product, which has driven suppliers out of business.
But in this case, can Asda really begin producing its own milk? Considering the steadily decreasing profit margins for the milk industry, it wouldn’t be surprising if Asda’s long term strategy included a buyout of milk farms for its own gain. Who knows? In the mean time, however, some farmers are considering protesting.
Posted by Joel Nezianya on Tuesday, August 19 | 2 comments | Permalink
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