British supermarket giant Asda has agreed a deal to open a supermarket in Newry as it looks to continue drawing customers north of the border. The Newry store is one of four new stores planned for the North by the supermarket chain, another of which will be in Armagh.

The Sunday Tribune revealed last November that the supermarket chain, which is owned by US retailer Wal-Mart, was looking for a site in Newry. Local reports suggest it will open at the Hill Partnership's mixed use Carnbane Way development.

A store in Newry would allow Asda compete better with Sainsbury's for customers travelling from the south. Between them, they have already taken 2.6% of the Republic's grocery market, despite neither having a store in the south, an increase of 300% year on year according to research by TNS Worldpanel.

Earlier this year Asda said that it was looking to offer home delivery to customers in the Republic "as soon as we possibly can". Issues with euro pricing were the main concern. Ahead of offering the service, it registered a number of Irish domain names including asda.ie,
walmart.ie, wal-mart.ie and samsclub.ie.