More non-foods in future at Asda

Asda, the UK subsidiary of Wal-Mart, is intending to devote more retail space to non-food ranges, including hardware, tools, paints and varnishes and also plumbing items. The company is investing $560 million in opening ten new hypermarket stores. A mezzanine level is also to be added to up to 40 existing stores to create more space. The hardware departments in some of Asda’s UK stores are very small compared with stores operated elsewhere in the world, and it is only in housewares that the company is able to keep in the running with specialised product lines.