Asda to ramp-up home shopping service

NEWS Supermarket chain, Asda, has announced a £318m investment programme, including an expansion of its IT-based home shopping service. The investment will create 6,000 jobs across the country, 1,200 in the home shopping arm. Asda, owned by US retail giant, Wal-Mart, is to double the scope of its home shopping service by opening two new distribution centres in east and west London. It currently has centres in Croydon and Watford, catering for about one million people. Asda does not at present have a full ecommerce site, but does distribute its catalogue on CD-ROM and takes orders via email. It has not revealed plans to develop its own ecommerce destination as yet. Asda also announced plans to open a further 12 stores in the UK, and says it estimates the new jobs will be followed by a further 21,000 over the next five years.