their stores in the Götaland region but in 2004 it opened its first stores in Stockholm. In 2003, the head office moved to Falkenberg, by which time there were 28 stores in the country. As of 2019, this had risen to 163. In 2006, ICA announced it was pulling out of the joint venture and reducing its stake from 50% to 5%; today, ICA no longer has any stake in the company. Some 21 stores in the Stockholm and Västerås regions transferred to ICA ownership with most being rebranded to ICA's own formats in 2007. The reasons for the change were problems in supplying the stores based on Netto's more southern base as well as ICA's desire to focus investment on its own formats. On 10 May 2019, it was announced that Salling Group had signed an agreement with Swedish Co-op Butiker & Stormarknader AB on the latter's purchase of the 163 Netto supermarkets in Sweden. United Kingdom Netto began operating in the UK in Leeds on 13 December 1990, with the company's UK headquarters located in the former mining village of South Elmsall, West Yorkshire. Netto primarily expanded in central England, before moving into London. In 2005, plans for a £2 million investment in South Wales were announced, only to be cancelled due to logistical issues, which resulted in the sale of stores in Barry and Caerphilly. 1,700 jobs were promised in the expansion, with only a small number actually being created. In 2010, Netto UK was sold to Asda for £778 million to help Asda increase its smaller store portfolio. The rebranding of 147 former Netto stores under the Asda brand was completed in late 2011. Competition laws required Asda to sell the remaining 47 stores to other companies, such as Morrisons, new convenience store UGO, and other retailers. In 2014, Dansk Supermarked returned Netto to the UK as a 50:50 joint venture with Sainsbury's. Plans called for one store to be combined with a Sainsbury's. In 2016, the two companies announced they were ending the joint venture and closing the stores. Mike Coupe, chief executive, said: "we have made the difficult decision not to pursue the (Netto) opportunity further, and instead focus on our core business and on the opportunities we will have, following our proposed acquisition of Home Retail Group". Other countries The Netto name is also used in other countries, such as Spain and France,