Asda is set to add a sizeable 1,000 new lines to its homeware range, now dubbed George Home (as first revealed by The Grocerin October). With today’s announcement, Asda made plain it has its heart set on becoming Britain’s biggest multi-channel retailer for general merchandise.

The company has pledged to expand its homeware lines by 25% to 4,000 over the next five years, but with retail rival Tesco increasingly moving away from general merchandise within its stores and Sainsbury’s ensuring its own GM ranges are closely linked with food, does this investment make sense?

Tesco’s position on general merchandise remains clear, with Philip Clarke revealing last year that it would continue to cut back on general merchandise in its stores as part of a programme that will see some Extras reduced in capacity by up to a third.

In fact, the retailer seems to be interested in adding anything but GM to its big box-space, with franchising deals with the likes of restaurant chain Giraffe a more pressing concern. “With more general merchandise moving online, we have a great opportunity to rethink how we use the space in some of our larger stores,” said Tesco group commercial director Kevin Grace back in March.

Meanwhile, at Sainsbury’s, which extended the ‘By Sainsbury’s’ range into homeware last year, general merchandise and clothing is growing at “around twice the rate of food sales”. But despite this success, its focus is for GM to remain complimentary to its food offer, with Roger Burnley, Sainsbury’s managing director - general merchandise, crediting growth to the “careful selection” of new lines.

There are signs that Asda shares Tesco’s vision of moving the category into a more digital space, with the full George Home range only available online from 28 March; selected lines will be sold in stores.

However, with Asda recently pledging to “dial up” its in-store George and general merchandise section as part of a five-year £250m investment in improving quality, a spokesman for retailer insisted today that George Home will still be “very much focused” within stores and that it isn’t primarily an online proposition.

Asda has been keen to point to the budget price points of George Home, with George CMO Andrew Moore revealing some products will be priced as low as £1. According to Moore, the “UK general merchandise and homewares market is there for the taking” – though the likes of TK Maxx, Homebase, Wilko, John Lewis, B&Q, Ikea et al may have something to say about that.

Either way, it’s another big step forward for the George brand (the international expansion of the clothing arm has been a theme of the last year). Asda will be dearly hoping that price + breadth of range convinces us we all need to buy George.

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