The announcement was timed to coincide with Yorkshire Day on 1 August, with £7.2 million earmarked for upgrading stores in Kingswood, Harrogate, York, Pudsey and Keighley by the end of 2025.
The remaining £4.6 million will be spent on two stores located in Grimsby and Stockton respectively. Asda said it is aiming to extend the programme to more UK locations next year.
Each store selected for the programme will undergo full shop floor refurbishments, including a simpler and more intuitive layout, as well as new feature lighting and neon signage. The upgrades have been designed to modernise the stores and enhance the shopping experience for customers.
Work on the majority of stores will begin in September and is expected to take around seven weeks per store. All stores will remain open as usual for customers throughout the duration of the work.
“We’re proud to continue investing in the communities we serve – especially in Yorkshire, where our story began 60 years ago,” said Liz Evans, chief commercial officer for retail.
“Following the successful refurbishment of our Pilsworth store earlier this year, we’re pleased to share our plans to modernise these Yorkshire stores and further enhance the shopping experience.”
Earlier this month Asda proposed changes to its in-store management roles, a move that will the retailer said will lead to redundancies.
Asda did not confirm how many people would lose their jobs as a result of the changes, which will see the roles of section manager and trading manager combined into a new manager role that reports into the operations manager.
This comes less than a year after the grocery retailer announced that it was laying off 475 people employed at its head office.
In other news, Guinness owner Diageo has announced the appointment of Deirdre Mahlan as its interim chief financial officer.
