My visit to new Asda store in Layerthorpe

I met Mick Goodall, General Store Manager at Asda’s new supermarket in Foss Island Road today, to have a tour of the store and to meet staff.

 

Asda acquired the former Netto store in August and it now stocks 10,000 grocery products, which is around four times as many products as previously stocked by Netto.

 

In total the Leeds based supermarket chain bought 193 Netto stores, in a deal worth £778 million, and it promised to re-open as many of the stores as possible as part of a plan to open 250 “small” supermarkets by 2015.

 

The store in Layerthorpe employed all thirteen of the former Netto staff so that customers could continue to see familiar faces and it created an additional seven jobs.

 

I am glad that Asda has chosen to open a store close to the city centre, because it is better for the environment for people to shop locally and people without cars find it difficult to travel to out of town stores.

 

I am very pleased they have kept on all of the former Netto staff.  Seven new jobs have been created at a time when many firms are cutting back.  Job creation in the private sector is vital because the number of jobs in the public sector is being cut back.

 

I congratulate the team at Asda on their new store and I hope it will go from strength to strength.