With the announcement today from Andy Clarke that Asda will make a decision on its convenience-store presence towards the end of an ambitious new five-year investment plan, you can’t help but feel the retailer could be leaving things a little too late.
While Morrisons continues to add M Local stores across the UK, Tesco and Sainsbury’s have years of experience with their own c-store operations. By entering such a competitive market so late on, Clarke risks a brutal space race with fully established rivals.
Asda is set to open 100 standalone forecourts and roll out click & collect to 1,000 locations over the next five years. The Grocer recently reported that click & collect could serve as a cost-effective alternative model to a traditional c-store format for Asda, and Clark did not deny that this could be the case when the suggestion was put to him today.
With Asda continuing to win the battle on fuel prices, the opening of 100 forecourts also seems like a logical way of dipping its toe in the c-store waters. There is a precedent: Tesco Express started in the forecourts, and if the 100 stores are as successful as Clarke is predicting, it’s entirely possible Asda’s c-stores could make the same leap.
Whether click & collect or petrol stations ultimately prove to be the answer, I still sense that Clarke believes Asda can make an impact with a more traditional convenience offering, but only if he can find a way to maintain the low prices that have made Asda famous.
If Asda can keep prices low, and compete with its rivals on space, and hasn’t left it too late in the day – then it could be onto a winner. After that, it just has to think of a name… Mini Asda, anyone?
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