It's not every day you launch a prestigious new supermarket store in a virgin market so how odd that Asda recently lifted the proverbial fez off its first retailopolis in Egypt with such little fanfare.

Merchandising masterminds for the new store in Sharm El Sheik, on the banks of the Red Sea obviously expect to do well out of Dasani bottled water, judging by the eye-catching display out front. (Or maybe they're just hoping someone will steal it and run off.)

While Dasani long ago went down the plughole in the UK, perhaps the key to selling modified tap water for a Pharaoh-sized mark-up is to let it warm up to a refreshingly tasty boiling temperature under the glare of the North African sun something even the marketing geniuses at Coca-Cola presumably never figured out.

Whether Asda's already-infamous Project Cheesegrater de-listing extravaganza extends this far remains to be seen.

But if the sun-dried Dasani starts flying off the shelves (for shelves read hot tiles) like relics disappearing from a freshly raided tomb, expect Axeman Blackhurst to find room for the once-derided stuff back in Blighty quicker than you can say "Morrisons called".

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