Asda to create 5,000 jobs in £500m expansion Asda, which currently employs more than 180,000 people and boasts 528 stores across the UK, said nearly half of the jobs it created last year had gone to young people, while 8,500 jobs went to people who had signed up through Job Centre Plus. Asda, which is owned by the world's biggest retailer, US-based Walmart, will also open a new depot in Rochdale, replace a depot in Grangemouth, Falkirk, to serve Scotland and Northern Ireland, and revamp a centre in South Elmsall, Yorkshire, which formerly belonged to Netto. It has already opened a store in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, this year but also plans outlets in Bootle in Merseyside, Coventry, Gateshead in Tyne & Wear, Harworth in Nottinghamshire, Mitcham in London, Ramsgate in Kent, Shepshed in Leicestershire, Todmorden in West Yorkshire, Worcester, and Worthing in West Sussex. Its plans for Scotland will see it open stores in Inverness and Tain in the Highlands, and Larkhall in South Lanarkshire. And in Wales it will open a store in Bangor. In Asda's most recent like-for-like figures, excluding VAT and fuel, the retailer saw sales increase by 1.3pc between July 1 and September 30. But it has yet to update on the Christmas period, which saw rival Tesco issue a profits warning.