19th May 2016 12:28
LONDON (Alliance News) - UK supermarket Asda Ltd reported Thursday another drop in sales, with a weak first quarter following on from the slump it reported over the Christmas period.
Asda, owned by US giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc, said like-for-like sales declined 5.7% year-on-year in the 13 weeks to March 30, indicating little improvement has been made since it reported a 5.8% fall in sales for the Christmas quarter in 2015, the largest quarterly sales fall it had ever recorded.
Asda said it saw a 5.0% fall in shoppers visiting its stores in the first quarter from the year before and said it remains focused on reviving its fortunes. This includes spending GBP500.0 million on price cuts to face off competition from its fellow Big Four rivals - Tesco PLC, J Sainsbury PLC and Wm Morrison Supermarkets PLC - and from insurgent Germany discounters Aldi and Lidl.
The supermarket also said it was on track to cut costs across the business and will soon launch a revamped marketing push targeting families on a budget.
"The UK continues to struggle, due primarily to fierce competition," said Brett Biggs, the chief financial officer at Wal-Mart. "Improvements in price and product availability throughout the quarter were not enough to overcome traffic and food volume declines in our large format stores."
Wal-Mart Stores itself reported Thursday lower profit in its first quarter, yet it topped market estimates for sales.
By Sam Unsted; [email protected]; @SamUAtAlliance
Copyright 2016 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Related Shares:
TescoMRW.LSainsbury's