Asda chief executive Andy Clarke to step down

Asda chief executive Andy Clarke is to step down after more than 20 years at the UK supermarket chain, in a management shake up designed to wrestle back market share from discounters Aldi and Lidl.

On Monday, Asda’s parent company – US retail giant Walmart – announced that Mr Clarke would give up the role at the end of July. Mr Clarke said “the timing was right” for him to move on.

Sean Clarke, currently president and chief executive of Walmart China, will take over the top job at Asda.

Walmart also said that Roger Burnley will be named the deputy chief executive of Asda, and the UK chain's chief operating officer, when he joins the company from Sainsbury's in October.

Mr Clarke joined Asda in 1992 as a store manager, and was appointed chief executive in 2007. He had long been expected to vacate Asda’s top post in the coming years – but Monday’s announcement of his replacement came as a surprise to many.

Last week, Mr Clarke had said that Mr Burnley was in line to take over the reins of the UK group, telling Retail Week magazine that he was “preparing” Mr Burnley for what “should hopefully be his next role” as chief executive.

Mr Burnley is returning to the supermarket chain having worked there between 1996 and 2002, where he was part of the team responsible for integrating Asda into Walmart, after the US group bought the UK business in 1999. Sean Clarke is also returning to the UK operation, having joined Asda in 1996 before moving to Walmart Canada.

Asda’s management reshuffle comes amid a difficult period for the supermarket chain, which is one of Walmart’s biggest businesses outside the US.

It is the third-largest UK supermarket by market share, behind Tesco and J Sainsbury, according to research group Kantar Worldpanel. But Asda has struggled to maintain its reputation as Britain's cheapest grocer in the face of competition from German discount chains Aldi and Lidl, which now have a combined share of more than 10 per cent.

Earlier this month, David Cheesewright, president and chief executive of Walmart International, said the parent company was "very disappointed" at Asda's weak performance in the UK supermarket price war. He hinted at a move away from the company's preference for profit growth over market share, saying: "With the US business recovering, you can expect that we will shift the balance from protecting profit to protecting share."

Last month, Asda reported a seventh consecutive quarter of declining sales, after like-for-like sales in the three months to March 31 fell 5.7 per cent. Mr Clarke had previously hoped that a 4.7 per cent decline in the second quarter of 2015 would prove to be the “nadir” for the company.

– Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2016