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Asda steals market share as like-for-likes edge up
Like-for-like sales at Asda edged up 0.5 per cent for the 10 weeks to June 30, with the supermarket building market share by 0.14 per cent year-on-year.
The Walmart-owned grocer – which is currently going through a major restructure involving 1,360 job cuts – said growth demonstrated it was “continuing to deliver on its strategy to redefine value retailing”.
Clothing arm George at Asda grew by double-digits in the period. Although it did not reveal figures, George is now the second largest clothing retailer by volume in the UK.
Its market share for grocery home shopping has grown to 18,4 per cent, while Asda's click-and-collect service has driven the total number of customers buying online to 20,000 a week. In the last three months Asda has extended the hours customers are able to collect their shopping on a Sunday by four hours, resulting in a 20% uplift on the day’s orders.
In the next five years the supermarket expects to treble orders made using click-and-collect to 30% of all purchases made.
Asda president and chief executive Andy Clarke said:
“The last quarter has seen unprecedented change within the food retail sector, and whilst I do not underestimate the challenge currently presenting retailers, I am proud that our business identified and put plans in place to respond to these changes early. We have a clear five year strategy based on everyday low prices and we continue to implement that strategy with agility and pace.”
Clarke also referenced the restructure, describing it as one of the “most difficult decisions of my career”.
He said the company had been in “genuine consultation” with staff and that 600 roles had been added to the new structure as a result. The redundancies are mostly expected to affect store staff and 7,000 managers are being retrained.
Clarke added:
“I’ve been in this business for too long to measure success by quarters and we remain on a long term journey. Innovation, low prices and customer service remain at the heart of our business and over the coming months and years we will continue to implement and build on this successful strategy as we constantly look at new and improved ways to run our business.”