Asda quarterly sales fall but it sees ‘green shoots’ of recovery

Asda chair Allan Leighton said he was seeing “green shoots” of recovery in the supermarket’s performance six months into his turnaround plan.

The grocer saw first quarter sales excluding fuel fall 5.9% to £5bn in the four months to 31 March. On a like-for-like basis, trading declined 3.1% – representing a 1.1% improvement compared to the final quarter of last year.

Leighton launched a price war against its rivals at the start of the year to kickstart the supermarket’s turnaround, which saw the return of Rollback and Asda Prices.

The retailer has since lowered the prices of around 10,000 products, which it claims has established a price gap of between 3% and 6% compared to traditional full-service supermarkets.

“Although we are seeing the green shoots in sales performance, there is a long way to go, and we remain firmly focussed on widening the price gap over other full-service supermarkets to give customers the savings they expect every time they shop at Asda,” Leighton said.

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The supermarket’s Express convenience chain enjoyed a 6% sales boost over the quarter following the integration of all 469 convenience stores and fuel sites acquired from The Co-op and EG Group.

Asda said it has a strong pipeline of new Express stores planned for residential and city centre locations later this year.

The retailer also reported strong growth in its George fashion arm, which delivered a 3.5% increase in like-for-like sales and outperformed the fashion market by 2% on volume.

Asda is keen to capitalise on the positive performance of its fashion business with the rollout of standalone George stores.

Leighton said he thinks there’s an opportunity for the business to open around 100 sites in the UK following a positive reception to its new concept store in Leeds at the start of the month.

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