Netto UK’s parent company has appointed the hard discounter’s property director as managing director to oversee the integration to Asda.

Dansk Supermarked Group has promoted William Smith to lead the transition from Netto to Asda.

The move follows managing director Charles Kay’s decision to step down early from the hard discounter at the beginning of November.

Asda bought the Danish hard discounter’s UK business in May for £778m. The deal means Asda can make its move into smaller supermarkets, with the average Netto store size around 10,000 sq ft. It will start the conversions next year.

Netto has operated in the UK since 1990 but failed to make the impact that rivals Aldi and Lidl have.