British supermarket group Asda this week opened its first World Food Store in Hounslow, West London.

The trial outlet stocks product from the Mediterranean, Irish, Asian, Afro Caribbean and Polish nationalities across chilled and frozen food, ambient, clothing, homeware and health and beauty.

The store also has a Polish deli counter and a Halal meat counter. In total it will serve six different nationalities covering hundreds of ethnic lines.

Asda says the World Food Store launch is in direct response to customer feedback from the Hounslow area, which has a diverse range of nationalities who want to be able to get their full weekly shop from one store, instead of shopping around.

"Asda works closely with the local communities in the area to help advise what will be on the shelves and partnered with a number of local businesses to provide specialist counter services," said a company statement.

"The two most popular ethnic food counters are Delicja and Haji Baba – Delicja is a Polish deli counter hosted by purely Polish colleagues and Haji Baba is a local Halal butcher who has been in the area for 30 years.

“In the last year we have seen a 42 per cent year on year rise in sales of ethnic products across our stores, off the back of an 83 per cent increase last year, showing that there is a real appetite for diverse and specialist foods from across the world.

"We felt it was the right time to launch our first World Food store in Hounslow which will help broaden our customer base and make Asda the supermarket of choice for all.”

The concept is being launched on a trial basis with a view to rolling out nationally in 2010.

Source: Asda