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By James Davey, Muvija M
LONDON (Reuters) -Struggling British grocery store Asda stated on Saturday veteran retailer Allan Leighton would return as government chairman, greater than 20 years after he served as CEO when he turned across the enterprise earlier than promoting it to Walmart (NYSE:).
Britain’s third largest grocer, now majority owned by personal fairness agency TDR Capital, has been shedding market share to rivals, together with business chief Tesco (OTC:) and No. 2 Sainsbury (LON:)’s, in response to month-to-month knowledge.
Leighton will succeed fellow veteran Stuart Rose, who has been chair since 2021 and in September assumed the chief obligations of co-owner Mohsin Issa.
Earlier this month, Rose stated Asda had “barely misplaced the plot”, highlighting insufficient retailer requirements, poor product availability and costs not as sharp as they’ve been up to now. However he stated the enterprise is fixable.
On the similar time, Asda reported a 4.8% fall in third quarter like-for-like gross sales and warned that measures within the new Labour authorities’s price range final month would value the group 100 million kilos ($125 million).
Leighton served as Asda CEO from 1996 to 2001, driving a turnaround with then chairman Archie Norman earlier than the enterprise was offered to Walmart for six.7 billion kilos. Leighton additionally served as president of Canadian retail group Loblaw and chairman of Britain’s Co-op and the Royal Mail (LON:).
Asda stated Rose will stay on the board to make sure an orderly transition earlier than stepping down.
“I’m delighted to be returning to the enterprise which has all the time been a particular place for me,” Leighton stated.
Gary Lindsay (NYSE:), managing associate of TDR Capital, stated Leighton’s “expertise and understanding of Asda will stand us in good stead as he leads the enterprise into the subsequent stage of its growth”.
Walmart retains a ten% stake in Asda.
($1 = 0.7980 kilos)
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