Sustainability at ASDA Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Sustainability at ASDA - Essay ExampleSupermarkets in Europe argon investing time and effort into the accomplishment of sustainability in their trading operations since this is the new competitive advantage they ought to possess. The paper discusses the drivers as well as the sustainability initiatives to be undertaken by ASDA in its shopping centre at Wolverhampton, keeping in view dynamics of the exertion as well as social, political, legal, economic and other factors. Before delving into the concept of sustainability, it is useful to understand the nature of the grocery industry in the U.K. The U.K supermarkets industry was worth more than ? 150.8 bn in 2010 which showed considerable increase of 3.1% compared to the last year (Schnedlitz et al., 2010). Food and grocery exp checkiture accounted for 0.52% of retail expenditure (Schnedlitz et al., 2010). Of this 0.53%, 21% is roughly spent shopping for the same in convenience stores (Schnedlitz et al., 2010). The private label bran ds, including Tesco, Asda, Morrisons and Sainsburys have their unique brand identity and are not me-too or imitations of their branded competitors (Schnedlitz et al., 2010). The U.K retail market seems to be on the maturity stage of its lifecycle, however, growth is still quite prominent. The market is on its termination to a 15% growth in the next 5 years (IGD, 2010). Economic dynamics much(prenominal) as rising interest rates and consumer prices, crime syndicate prices as well job insecurity are only few of a plethora of factors affecting firms in this sector (IGD, 2010).The new government future(a) the election in May, 2010 also seems to bear impact by way of its proposed contractionary fiscal and monetary policy which could mean tough times for the high end markets. The history of ASDA can be traced back to the 1920s when farmers in Yorkshire created the Hindells dairies in 1920 (ASDA, 2011). The company was an instant hit and diversified and expanded to become the Associate d Dairies and kindle Stores Ltd in 1949, hence the name ASDA (ASDA, 2011). At the same time, in 1958, two brothers came up with The Asquiths store which offered, to some extent, convenience shopping to customers at a wholeness place (ASDA, 2011). In 1965, the Asquiths merged with Associated Dairies and Farm Stores Ltd. to create ASDA (ASDA, 2011). Thereon, the company was named as ASDA in 1970 when The Asquiths was acquired by Associated Dairies and Farm Stores Ltd (ASDA, 2011). Today, ASDA is known as a subsidiary of Wal-Mart, and is a merchandising and grocery retailing giant in the U.K. The company owns about 583 stores that stock various items ranging from grocery to apparel (ASDA, 2011). ASDA has its headquarters in Leeds, U.K and is home to rough 178,000 workers (ASDA, 2011). The company is widely known for its staunch sustainability initiatives and has undertaken massive reforms in the same area in order to maintain its competitive edge over competitors such as Morrisons, Sainsburys Tesco and Waitrose. Sustainability is defined as the ability to survive or sustain. Popularly, the term environmental sustainability is being used to represent efforts to sustain and prolong the pick of all species and the ecosystem in the environment. A more comprehensive definition of sustainability encompasses all three foundations of sustainability, including the people, economy and the environment (Dunphy, 2000). The relation between these three foundations suggests that there endure limitations on the