Asda boss Allan Leighton says ‘plenty to do’ in turnaround as sales fall

The boss of Asda has said the supermarket giant still has “plenty to do” in its turnaround after revealing a slump in sales and earnings over the past year.

The UK’s third largest supermarket chain revealed on Friday that sales, excluding fuel, dropped by 3.3% to £21 billion in 2025, compared with a year earlier.

It also reported that adjusted earnings tumbled by a third to £764 million for the year.

The Leeds-based retailer has been in the throes of a major turnaround under returning boss Allan Leighton, after losing share in the UK grocery market to rivals including Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Lidl.

However, transformation efforts were set back by a botched £1 billion IT upgrade last year.

The company said it faced “severe disruption” linked to the IT transition, resulting in reduced product availability and weaker sales.

Asda had been separating more than 2,500 legacy IT systems and moving them on to its own platforms since being sold by Walmart, which still holds a 10% stake, to Zuber and Mohsin Issa and private equity firm TDR Capital in 2021.

In the fresh update, Mr Leighton, executive chairman of the business, said sales declined 2.4% in the final quarter of last year as it continued to feel the impact of the IT disruption.

However, he said the business now has “positive momentum” and is returning to sales growth.

“There is plenty to do but there is also plenty of upside,” the boss said.

“We have that momentum and a strong balance sheet to allow us to push forward.”

Asda said availability has now recovered to an eight-year high of 95%, leading to stronger sales in recent months.

Total like-for-like sales fell by 1.6% in January and by 1% in February but have grown by 1.2% so far in March.

Mr Leighton added: “As we enter the second year of our turnaround, we have an improved customer offer, stable core systems, a strengthened balance sheet and a strong leadership team to deliver our formula for growth.

“Our progress in key areas like price, availability, and customer satisfaction is edging forwards, reflected in positive like-for-like sales growth in our stores for the last two months.”