‘Mohsin Issa’s Asda departure paves the way for Lord Rose to bring much-needed stability’

After months of speculation, Asda co-owner, and until now de-facto chief executive, Mohsin Issa has relinquished the reins of the grocer and handed the day-to-day running to retail veteran Lord Stuart Rose, with former eBay boss Rob Hattrell at his right hand.

Issa’s departure comes at a time when Asda has been suffering. The retailer’s market share has slumped by more than a percentage point over the last 12 months and sales have languished as the brand has battled with mounds of debt, rolling industrial disputes with staff and a time and resource-sapping IT project.

While Mohsin can’t take the blame for all of this himself, Asda insiders and analysts have been saying for years now that the grocer desperately needed a leader with a better understanding of how to run a supermarket chain.

It’s been over three years since Asda last had a chief executive – Roger Burnley. Three years without an experienced grocery leader at the helm of one of the UK’s biggest supermarket chains and, quite frankly, that has begun to show.

Insiders also complained that Mohsin’s tendency towards micro-managing had made the search for a new chief executive all but impossible. As he takes a back seat in a non-executive role, the process of finally finding Burnley’s successor should start to pick up pace.

A source familiar with the situation says that no decision is imminent on a new chief executive

In the interim though, the day-to-day running of the business will fall to ­Lord Rose, who has been the chair of the grocer since the Issa brothers and private equity business TDR Capital bought Asda in 2021.

Rose seems to have got what he wanted – in the short term at least. It’s been just a month or so since he publicly lamented Asda’s second-quarter results as “embarrassing” and called on Mohsin to step aside.

A totemic figure in retail, Lord Rose has been just about everywhere and seen just about everything; ultimately he will be a safer pair of hands to guide the business through the run-up to the all-important Christmas period and the end of the year. 

It’s unlikely that he will want to be anything other than an interim boss though. Rose is a giant in the sector, perhaps most famous for leading a mammoth turnaround of high street staple Marks & Spencer. It’s not that he couldn’t do the job at Asda, it’s more that, after over 50 years in retail, he doesn’t have to.

Given all that, TDR and Asda are likely much further down the track in its nine-month and counting search for a chief executive than many had first thought.

A source familiar with the situation says that no decision is imminent on a new chief executive. But even if TDR has a few names it’s excited about on a shortlist, that will represent significant progress from the previous Mohsin-induced deadlock.

Whatever happens, Mohsin Issa’s step back from Asda closes a chaotic chapter in the history of the grocer

TDR may even be looking at the chief executive search as a chance to refresh the whole leadership structure. If so, it could do worse than looking at how competitor Morrisons has approached a new hire, bringing in a young and innovative chief executive to get the day-to-day operations firing on all cylinders, while handing the broader, strategic decisions to a hugely experienced chair.

Whatever happens, Mohsin Issa’s step back from Asda closes a chaotic chapter in the history of the grocer. Hopefully, what comes next will bring much needed stability for a brand in desperate need of a turnaround.