Most of the talk in the British retail sector over the last few years has been of the rise of Tesco to the nation's number one position and the respective decline in popularity of long-time favourite Sainsbury. But focusing on these two chains would ignore the important gains made by other players in the market, notably Asda.
The improvement in Asda's fortunes has undoubtedly been helped by its acquisition by Wal-Mart, the giant US group which is the world's largest retailer, and the level of the chain's success was confirmed earlier this month when it was voted the favourite supermarket chain in a survey of British shoppers.
The survey, carried out by UK trade magazine The Grocer, asked shoppers in 10 regions throughout the UK to vote for the supermarket group they considered the best in a number of categories, including price, range, quality, service and availability. Asda topped the poll with nearly 23 per cent of the votes, followed by Tesco with 19 per cent, Sainsbury with 15 per cent and Marks & Spencer with 11 per cent.
Asda fared best in six of the ten regions, although Tesco and Sainsbury performed better in London and south east, perhaps not unsurprisingly given the fact that Asda's traditional base is the north of the country and so it therefore has fewer stores in the south.
A decade ago, Asda suffered from rather a down market image, at least compared to the then market leader Sainsbury, but the success of Tesco's image makeover and the appointment of talismanic chairman Archie Norman saw Asda embark upon a major programme of improving its quality and service and in particular extending its range of products.
Asda was the first of the major chains in the UK to embrace the non-food market, and its George range of clothing has been a particular success. Just last week the company announced it was taking on 200 new employees at George across the 228 stores which carry the range because of the increasing success of the non-food operations.
But it is not just the increased range which has helped Asda top the poll. Its acquisition by Wal-Mart gave it access to a group with immense buying power - a major plus when it comes to keeping prices as low as possible - and the company's efforts to improve the quality of its products and service have been particularly successful.
The superstore concept has worked well for Asda, and it continues to roll out stores which are far larger than those operated by its rivals. In fact, the biggest supermarket in the UK was opened by the company this week in Livingston, Scotland, offering shoppers over 9,000 square metres of floor space.