14th Nov 2013 15:28
LONDON (Alliance News) - British supermarket chain Asda Group Limited, which is owned by US retail giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc., reported a small uptick in like-for-like sales in the third quarter, and announced plans to invest GBP1.25 billion to lower prices and redesign products over the next five years.
Asda said that like-for-like sales were up 0.3% for the 13 weeks to October 4, its 12 consecutive quarter of growth.
The retailer said GBP1.0 billion of the investment will be used to underpin its 'Every Day Low Prices' slogan by widening the price gap with its three big supermarket rivals - Tesco PLC, J Sainsbury PLC and Morrison PLC- and also with discount retailers ALDI Group and Lidl.
Asda said it also will spend GBP250 million on quality, style and the design of its products.
Asda said its online business remains a key growth driver and expects online to generate GBP3 billion in annual sales by 2018.
The supermarket also said it plans to increase its number of click-and-collect locations from 218 to over 1,000 in the next five years.
Wal-Mart, the owner of Asda, posted on Thursday a 2.8% increase in its net income of USD3.73 billion for the third quarter.
By Rowena Harris-Doughty; [email protected]; @rharrisdoughty
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