Asda has won the support of its owner, Wal-Mart, to open up to 300 homeware stores in the UK. The Observer

The programme is part of a push by chief executive Andy Bond to beat Sainsbury's growth target set by Sainsbury's chief executive Justin King last week.

'We will open significantly more than 30 supermarkets over the next three years,' said Bond. 'I will be massively disappointed if we don't. We have other avenues of growth such as ASDA Living which we will expand very rapidly now. There are probably 300 locations where you could have an Asda Living store.'

Over the past 18 months Bond has steered Britain's second biggest supermarket chain out of a four-year sales slump. He is now focused on growing sales by expanding its homewares arm.