The British supermarket chain Asda is to bring forward a multimillion-pound reinvestment programme in the North with a £3.7 million upgrade of two stores in Downpatrick and Dundonald.

John Deasy, Asda’s regional operations manager, said the group had taken the decision to move forward its investment schedule for Northern Ireland because of strong trading across all its stores.

Asda, the UK subsidiary of the American Wal-Mart group, first came to the North in 2005.

It currently operates 14 stores and employs 3,500 people.