If you’re like me you’ve spent a long time wondering why Asda is called Asda. As a child I settled on the idea that it had something to do with the fact that A-S-D are lined up next to each other on a standard QWERTY keyboard. Disappointingly the real origin of their name isn’t as interesting.
Asda began life in the 1920s as Hindell Dairies, which became ‘Associated Dairies & Farm Stores’ in 1949. In 1965 the stores merged with the ‘Queens’ supermarket chain, owned by the Asquith brothers. The new company was called ‘Asda Queens’, which was formed from the merging of the ‘Asquith’ and ‘Dairies’ names, and the name of the Asquiths’ market chain. When the Asquiths were bought out by Associated Dairies in 1968, the ‘Queens’ was dropped.
As you can imagine there have been many buyings out and mergers over the years, but one of the most interesting is that when Associated Dairies merged with the Asquiths they bought out the British arm of an American company called GEM, who had failed to succeed in the UK. Imagine that? A British company buying out an American one? Thems were the days.
Asda has since sold off its dairy division, and so it no longer has anything to do with either of its original namesakes.
[carried over from ‘anyadditionalinformation’ wordpress blog]
Unstuck Monsters 