Asda has opened its 500th Express store as it kickstarts 2026 with two new openings in Bradford and Salford.
The milestone follows last year’s rollout of 17 new stores, which marked Asda’s return to opening standalone Express sites after it finished converting the 469 acquired Co-op and EG Group stores in Q2 2024.
Asda said the latest Express stores to join its convenience estate supported its ambition to strengthen its presence in locations where it traditionally had less of a footprint, including in high-footfall urban areas, residential neighbourhoods and transport hubs.
The Bradford Express store has taken over the Hare & Hounds pub located on Toller Lane, while the Salford site is located on Norton Street.
Each Express store offers more than 3,000 branded and own-label products, catering to everything from top-up shops to lunch on the go.
Bakery items and food-to-go products will be added shortly after launch, while on-demand delivery via Uber Eats, Just Eat and Deliveroo will also be available.
“We’re excited to kick off the year by opening two brand-new Asda Express stores, building on our fantastic momentum from 2025,” said Joseph Sutton, VP for Asda Express, foodservice and fuel.
“In under five years, we’ve built a nationwide convenience estate of over 500 stores which is now outperforming the wider convenience market thanks to the combination of our great products and unbeatable value. We look forward to welcoming customers to these new stores.”
Asda expects to open around 20 more Express stores in 2026. The expansion is being supported by a new value strategy, with the retailer matching supermarket prices on core lines and running promotions exclusive to Express stores.
Its convenience arm remains a key growth area for the business, having delivered like-for-like sales growth of 3.5% in Q3 2025.
The wider business, however, faced a sales decline of 2.8% during the period, due to severe disruption to systems following cutover from Project Future.
Asda was also the only mainstream supermarket to register a decline over the 12 weeks to 28 December. Its sales fell 4.2% to leave it with share of 11.4%, according to the latest data from Worldpanel by Numerator revealed on 6 January.
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