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Asda has reported another quarter of falling sales as the struggling supermarket chain attempts to turn itself around and win customers back with lower prices.
The country’s third-largest grocer after Tesco and J Sainsbury said on Thursday that revenues fell 5.9 per cent to £5bn, excluding fuel, in the three months to March 31, compared with the same period last year.
Like-for-like sales were down 4.5 per cent, partly affected by the late timing of Easter compared with 2024.
The update comes as Asda continues to cede market share to rivals, warning in March that it would take a material hit to profits this year in a bid to lure shoppers from competitors. The supermarket now accounts for 12.1 per cent of the total UK food market, according to industry data released on Wednesday, versus 13 per cent a year ago.
Asda chair Allan Leighton, who rejoined the business in November to revive its fortunes more than two decades after his first tenure as chief executive, was unfazed by this development on Thursday.
“For me, market share is about tomorrow,” he said, adding that Asda had also recorded its best sales performance since May 2024, according to the same industry data, signalling green shoots of recovery. “We’re not fixed on market share; we’re fixed on rebuilding the business. I’m not bothered about it at all.”
The chain has been grappling with poor availability and customer experience as well as store cleanliness, problems that it has started to address.
In March, Leighton revealed plans to slash prices on tens of thousands of items to narrow the price gap between Asda and its main rivals, reigniting speculation of another supermarket price war and wiping more than £4bn off the value of Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Marks and Spencer.
Leighton said on Thursday that Asda had opened a “3 to 5 per cent [price] gap” to competitors currently as part of a plan to reach “7 to 10 per cent” over the next 12 months.
He added that he was not worried about the impact of rising food inflation on Asda’s ability to lower prices, saying it might actually be beneficial for the retailer. “We like it. If we’re putting prices down, when inflation is going up, this is good for us.”
Tesco and Sainsbury’s have recently warned that profits will fall and stay flat this year respectively, as they seek to defend their positions in the fiercely competitive sector.
