Budget goods boost Asda’s market share
WAL-MART owned Asda yesterday said it was stealing market share from other supermarkets as customers shopped around for low prices during the downturn.
Asda said over three months to 31 July it had grown its market share of the grocery sector to 17 per cent, up from 16.7 per cent the quarter before.
Tesco continues to be the front-runner in the UK market, with over 30 per cent of the market, while J Sainsbury’s has a 16 per cent share.
Despite the fall in food price inflation, Asda said it saw volumes accelerate over the same period as it continued to win over shoppers.
Like-for-like sales were up 7.2 per cent excluding fuel over the three months to July 31.
Asda has added ten more stores to its UK portfolio this year.
But the group’s second quarter sales rise marks a slowdown on the 8.4 per cent increase seen in the previous three months.
Asda chief financial officer Judith McKenna said the group remained cautious on the wider economy.
Asda revealed that on average families are £12 a week better off than a year ago due to lower priced commodities but UK consumer confidence remains low, driven by concerns about job security.
McKenna said: “This is not going to be a straight line economic recovery, however, in this environment, we are well placed to continue gaining market share by giving customers what they want – great products at low prices.”
Wal-Mart, the world’s biggest retailer with over 100m customers a year, reported basically flat profits of $3.44bn (£2.1bn) from $3.45bn in the same period last year due to adverse currency movements.
Net sales in the three months ended July 31 also fell 1.4 per cent to $100.1bn on adverse currency movements. Mike Duke, Wal-Mart’s chief executive yesterday said he was confident about the firm’s long-term future.