Profile: Who is Asda's incoming chief executive Sean Clarke?

Many retail observers had tipped Sainsbury’s Roger Burnley, incoming Asda chief operating officer, as the person to succeed current chief exectuive Andy Clarke. And Clarke himself signalled as much two weeks ago in a video interview with Retail Week.

Andy Clarke described Burnley as a “great leader” adding: “He’s going to be a great colleague and I look forward to spending time with him and preparing him for what hopefully should be his next role.”

That comment now seems like something of a faux pas given this morning’s revelation that Sean Clarke would in fact be handed the chief executive role while Burnley will be deputy chief executive and chief operating officer when he rejoins the business in October. Andy Clarke will leave Asda at the end of July but stay on as an adviser until the end of the year.

RAH Advisory director Richard Hyman describes the hire as a shock. “It’s a surprise in that we all assumed Roger Burnley would get it,” he says.

So the question is, just who is Sean Clarke? “I’ve never heard of him. You’re going to have to ask a Chinese retail analyst,” one analyst laughingly admitted. 

What we do know is that Sean Clarke is a Brit and a Walmart veteran, clocking up 20 years with the retailer, with whom he has built extensive international experience. David Cheesewright, president and chief executive of Walmart International, described Sean Clarke as “one of our most experienced global executives”. 

“He’s a man who has a passion for living abroad, having served as chief financial officer in Japan and Germany before moving to Walmart Canada”

Sean Clarke joins from Walmart China, where he was president and chief executive, a role he was promoted into two years ago after working as the region’s chief operating officer, where he was charged with heading merchandising, operations, supply chain and marketing, according to Walmart’s website.

He’s a man who spent much time living abroad, having served as chief financial officer in Japan and Germany before moving to Walmart Canada where he “led real estate and strategy and was a member of the board for Walmart Canada Bank,” reads Walmart website.

As much as he has lived the ex-pat life, Sean Clarke began working for Asda in 1996, working in roles including commercial finance director. Before joining Walmart, he worked as a chartered accountant with Ernst & Young in the UK and Singapore.

In an interview last month, Sean Clarke described China as “easily the most challenging market to operate”, adding “there is a huge level of distrust”.

China undoubtedly has its own unique challenges, but with the competitiveness of the UK market which has seen the big four battle against the rise of the discounters, unprecedented price deflation and changing shopping habits, it’s unlikely his home turf will turn out to be a breeze.

The new boss and his deputy “will serve as an incredibly powerful team to lead our Asda business”

David Cheesewright, Walmart International

In fact the incoming boss is going to have his work cut out. “Things are very different from when he was last here,” says Hyman. “It’s going to be extraordinarily difficult. I think the challenge in the UK is like no other market. It’s still a market in turmoil, all four have lost market share [to Lidl and Aldi] in the last Kantar report. Aldi will not let anyone get close enough to its price position, it will keep on lowering prices. Aldi can lower prices more than anyone in the market. That’s the challenge for Asda, which is price driven.”

Retail analysts at Barclays said: “Although it may be sensible for Walmart to accelerate change at Asda, Sean Clarke is likely to be less familiar with the recent machinations of the UK food retail sector.”

Cheesewright says the new boss and his deputy “will serve as an incredibly powerful team to lead our Asda business,” adding that their “complementary skills and combined expertise in the UK retail market and globally brings an unrivalled breadth of retail knowledge to Asda”.

At this stage, with Amazon now joining the seriously competitive market with its launch of Fresh, every little helps for Sean Clarke.