Housewares Business-to-business magazine for housewares retailers and their suppliers
Asda opened four more of its Asda Living standalone non-food format stores during the third quarter – which also saw the retailer continue to grow market share and beat its sales and profit plan.
Asda put on a 0.3 percentage point increase in year-on-year market share in the 12 weeks to October 7, with the figure now standing at 11.8%.
“For the ninth straight month we’ve grown our share of the market and beat our sales and profit plan,” commented ceo Andy Bond. “This clearly demonstrates that our approach to always lowering prices is continuing to pay off. We’ve cut 30,000 prices so far this year and customers are voting with their feet. An extra three quarters of a million of them are coming through our doors.”
He added that retailers should stop blaming interest rate rises, the weather and consumer confidence for their sales performance.
“It’s a load of humbug,” he said. “At Asda our job is to make products more affordable, not moan about the state of the economy.”
Asda opened eight new stores during the quarter, with a total of over 300,000sq ft of new space, and initial sales are ahead of plan. Four of them were new Asda Living stores, in Dartford, Durham, Lincoln and Tottenham, London. There are now 13 Asda Living outlets and more are planned for next year. The company says the format continues to perform well.
The retailer’s Christmas television advertising campaign broke this week. It stars Julie Walters in 15 documentary-style ads.
