Asda completes £600 million takeover of Co-op’s petrol business

Asda has completed the acquisition of 132 grocery retail sites, with attached petrol stations, from The Co-op as part of its strategy to enter the convenience market.

The deal will see 2,300 workers move over from the Co-op to the supermarket, following consultation with Usdaw.

The new focus in forecourts and convenience stores comes after Asda’s £6.8 billion takeover by the billionaire Issa brothers and private equity backers TDR Capital, who also own the EG Group forecourt giant.

The group, which owns funeral homes and insurance as well as supermarkets said proceeds from the sale will be reinvested into its core convenience shops, pricing, stores operations and reducing its debt burden.

The CMA has issued an ‘Initial Enforcement Order’ requiring that the Co-op sites remain entirely separate from Asda whilst the CMA conducts its investigation into the deal – a process that is expected to take until mid-2023.

During that time the sites will be run separately to the Asda business and only following formal approval of the transaction will colleagues be able to transfer to Asda’s employment and the stores made part of the Asda estate.

Asda co-owner Mohsin Issa said: “We are delighted to formally complete the transaction that we announced in August and taking the next step on our journey to creating a new and exciting part of our Asda business.

“As millions of families deal with the day-to-day impacts of increasing costs of living, we’re committed to bringing Asda’s great value groceries and fuel to even more communities across the UK through these new stores. Over the last five years we’ve been consistently ranked as one of the cheapest providers of fuel in the UK and have been voted the Grocer’s best priced supermarket for 25 years in a row – meaning customers in these communities can look forward to saving millions annually on the cost of filling their shopping trolleys and tanks when Asda comes to town.

“We look forward to working collaboratively with the CMA on their investigation and to welcoming our new Asda colleagues to our great business in the coming months.”