Walmart

Asda was today revealed to be lagging behind its rivals in sales growth amid fierce competition among British supermarkets as its billionaire owners try to cut costs. The retailer, which was bought by the Issa brothers and private equity firm TDR Capital from US group Walmart in 2021, saw sales rise just 1.9 per cent in a year. The growth was well behind that of its main rivals - with Sainsbury's at 7.6 per cent, Tesco at 6.2 per cent and Morrisons at 3.1 per cent, according to Kantar analysts. The biggest sales increase was seen from Lidl at 10.9 per cent, while Aldi was up 5.7 per cent, Ocado 4.9 per cent, Waitrose 3.8 per cent, Morrisons 3.1 per cent and Iceland 2.1 per cent. Only the Co-op was lower than Asda, at 1.4 per cent growth. Asda's market share has dropped from 14.3 per cent to 13.8 per cent in a year - and is down from 14.8 per cent three years ago at the time of the takeover in 2021. It comes as Asda battles to cut costs while facing hundreds of millions of pounds in interest payments amid a £4.2billion debt pile....read