Customers at Netto, the discount supermarket chain bought by Asda for £778million, will pay the same prices as those in bigger Asda stores.

That’s the pledge from the American-owned giant after its surprise takeover of Netto’s 193 outlets, including four in Kent and Medway.

Wal-Mart, Asda’s owner, bought the stores from Dansk Supermarket A/S, the Danish retail group 68 per cent owned by AP Moller-Maersk, the Copenhagen-based container and shipping company.

Netto operates four stores in the county – High Street, Strood; Citygate Centre, Canterbury; Charlton Green, Dover; and High Street, Ramsgate. Netto’s store in Tovil, Maidstone, closed some time ago. They will be re-branded Asda over the next few months.

The move is expected to create jobs under Asda’s plan to double the average number of 14 staff in each store.

Netto is a European-style discounter in the same marketplace as Lidl and Aldi, with a smaller product range than the typical Asda, Sainbury’s, Tesco or Morrison’s store. While prices in the big four's smaller shops are typically higher than in their bigger outlets, Asda says that prices in the Netto stores will "be the same price across the board."

The acquisition follows a dip in Asda’s market share amid supermarket price wars and is seen as its attempt at a fightback. The deal is subject to approval by the Office of Fair Trading.