Focus on food will be key to Asda’s recovery

Struggling along without either a trading director or an operations chief, on Tuesday he was put in the awkward position of both parent company Walmart revealing another fall in Asda’s comp sales and Kantar showing it had lost further market share to its rivals.

It’s a far cry from the early part of the year, when Asda was trumpeting its intention to be the UK’s number one non-food retailer and a clear number two in food. Right now, while those intentions are still part of the plan, it feels like a retailer on the back foot.

Some of the reasons for Asda’s struggles are obvious. A change at the top always creates a bit of a hiatus, let alone when it leaves two key roles on the board vacant, just as it’s also trying to conclude the takeover of a competitor (in this case Netto). It also doesn’t help that Morrisons and Sainsbury’s remain on top form. And their success points to a more fundamental problem that Clarke has inherited.

Everyone knows Asda is cheap, and more often than not the cheapest of the big four. But its relentless focus on price means that it becomes perceived as somewhere to shop because you have to, rather than because you want to.

Even Tesco - which itself won’t be too happy with the Kantar numbers - has recognised with its latest ad campaign that quality and provenance is for many as important as price, and in those areas Morrisons and Sainsbury’s have the best reputations of the big four.

A renewed focus on extolling the virtues of what Asda sells not how much it sells it for is long overdue.

Retail holds the answers

After all the carping about his tax status, Sir Philip Green might already be regretting agreeing to advise the Government on how to become more efficient. But the - perfectly legal - ways in which he organises his own affairs should have no bearing on what is a sensible appointment.

David Cameron knows from his friendship with Simon Wolfson that the ultra-competitive world of retail is exactly the place he should be looking to give Government lessons on running a tight ship, and no one has a greater focus on efficiency in his business than Green and his ferocious lieutenant Ian Grabiner. The Government has a lot to tackle, but many of the problems are similar to those our top retailers face every day. Drawing on those experiences and skills could pay real dividends for the country.