Asda has this week launched its first World Food store in Hounslow, West London.
The store stocks chilled and frozen ranges of Mediterranean, Irish, Asian, African Caribbean and Polish food.
The store also includes a Polish deli counter and a Halal meat counter. Asda said the Hounslow store would serve six different nationalities covering hundreds of ethnic lines.
The retailer said it had launched the World Food store in response to customer feedback from the Hounslow area, which has a diverse range of nationalities.
It claimed shoppers want to be able to get their full weekly shop from the store, without shopping around.
Asda said it worked closely with the local communities in the area to decide what would be on the shelves and partnered with a number of local businesses to provide specialist counter services.
The two most popular ethnic food counters are Delicja and Haji Baba – Delicja is a Polish deli counter hosted by Polish staff and Haji Baba is a local Halal butcher who has been in the area for 30 years.
Cathryn Ramsden, emerging markets customer planning manager said: “In the last year we have seen a 42% year-on-year rise in sales of ethnic products across our stores, off the back of an 83% increase last year(2008), showing that there is a real appetite for diverse and specialist foods from across the world
The concept is being launched on a trial basis with a view to rolling the stores out nationally in 2010.
