Asda’s like-for-like sales grew 0.7% in the second quarter, down from 1.3% in the first three months of the year, it said today.
The supermarket also announced plans to invest in more bricks and mortar stores, petrol stations and click & collect sites.
“We’re pleased with our results in a tough market,” said Asda CEO and president Andy Clarke. “We continued to grow our sales while also investing in holding down the price of essentials, increasing access points to Asda’s value and putting money back in customers’ pockets when they need it the most.
“Our focus on opening up more ways for more customers to shop with us, particularly in areas currently underserved by Asda, provides us with real opportunity to grow space and channels to adapt our business to today’s customer.
“I’m confident this focus will continue to drive growth in a sustainable way.”
CFO Richard Mayfield added: “Consistent investment in price and the reduction of food inflation has diluted to some extent our top line growth. We’ve seen volumes respond with growth ahead of the market.”
Walmart international president and CEO Doug McMillon said the UK was an area where the company showed off its core strength of “investing in price” on essential food items.
“In the UK, we continued to grow both sales and operating income in the second quarter of the year, with operating income growing 7.5%,” he said.
“However, the British consumer remains under pressure. Our price investment in food essentials and produce continued throughout the quarter, a key traffic driver which meant we grew market share in this category.”
Asda held 17% market share in the UK supermarket sector in July, according to figures from Kantar Worldpanel.
Also in its results announcement today, Asda said it would be launching a same-day grocery delivery service in Wakefield this month, which it claimed would be a first in UK grocery.
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