About Asda
Asda is a diversified retail group serving circa 16m customers each week from over 1,200 UK locations and online. With roots dating back to a Yorkshire family business in the 1920’s, the first Asda officially opened on 3rd May 1965. Today, Asda today employs more than 150k colleagues across its stores, depots, home offices in Leeds and Lutterworth and wholly owned subsidiaries including IPL, Forza, Kober and Leon.
Asda’s primary operations include the sale of groceries, general merchandise, fuel, as well as clothing and homeware through George at Asda. It also offers a host of other services including Asda Mobile, Asda Money, pharmacy, and optical services. As well as 610 superstores, supermarkets and Asda Living Stores across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, Asda has a significant footprint in the fast-growing convenience and food service markets with 479 Express stores and 384 food service restaurants, including 53 Leon sites. The supermarket’s online service also delivers to 99.5% of the UK population. The Asda group is owned by TDR Capital (75%) and Mohsin Issa (25%).
Why did Asda need Stream?
Asda already offered colleagues financial education, budgeting tools, discounts and flexible pay, and wanted to add workplace savings as the next piece of that strategy. The wider UK context made the case clear: more than £1 trillion sits in UK savings accounts earning below 2.02% interest [1], half of UK consumers have never switched savings accounts [2], and 25% of consumers have under £100 in savings [3]— even as a 14% rise in disposable income (Q2 comparison) was matched by only a 0.3% fall in consumption, suggesting many people had some room to save but weren't doing so.
"Financial wellbeing of colleagues is a top priority for us and offering workplace savings benefit is just one of the many ways we're continuing to support our colleagues. This new benefit is alongside other financial benefits and support we already offer our colleagues at Asda, which includes financial education, budgeting tools, discounts and flexible pay. We've already had some really positive feedback from colleagues about these benefits and we're looking forward to this latest roll-out, which we hope will have a positive impact for so many of our colleagues."
What challenges did Stream solve?
Stream gave Asda colleagues a workplace savings account paying 3.80% AER* (3.73% gross), with FSCS protection, no deposit minimums, and no withdrawal fees — addressing the high-street savings gap described above directly**. Two savings mechanisms lowered the barrier to getting started: fixed deductions from regular pay, or "rounding up" shift payments to the nearest pound, with the difference automatically deposited.
What measurable outcomes were achieved?
What was the business impact?
Because this is framed as a launch rather than a retrospective, the "impact" on the page is forward-looking rather than measured — positioned as a strengthening of Asda's existing colleague-support strategy and a marker of progressive employer positioning.
"Asda's new workplace savings scheme is an incredible work perk for its team, offering better interest and flexibility than what's typically available on the high street. It will make a real difference to financial lives and futures, and marks Asda out as a progressive, caring employer."
*3.73% Gross | 3.80% AER, subject to variability. Interest-bearing savings are available to all Stream members aged 18+ excluding US citizens and those with tax residency outside the UK.
**Comparison against Lloyds Easy Saver, Barclays Everyday Saver, HSBC Flexible Saver and Natwest Flexible Saver as of 16 August 2024. Workplace Savings and Workplace loans are provided through Stream Finance Ltd, a Stream company.
1) Bank of England publicly available data, December 2023 ↑
2) Atom Bank survey of 2,000 UK consumers, 2023 ↑
3) Money and Pensions Service, 2022 ↑
