Asda chair says he is ‘embarrassed’ by performance as he urges co-owner to step back

“I am going to be perfectly honest with you. I’ve been in this industry for a long time and I am slightly embarrassed. I won’t deny that,” Rose said in an interview with The Telegraph.

“I don’t like being second, third or fourth.

“And if you look honestly now at the comparative numbers of Kantar or whatever index, we are not performing as well as we should be. I don’t like that.”

Rose’s intervention comes after Asda reported a decline in quarterly sales of 2.2% and a 5.3% fall in like-for-like sales last week.

The retailer’s market share has also shrunk from 13.6% to 12.7%, losing ground to rivals such as Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons, as well as the discounters, according to data from Kantar.

Rose added that Asda co-owner Mohsin Issa should step away from the day-to-day running of the business as the supermarket looks to turn around its struggling performance.

“I wouldn’t encourage him to [intervene in operations] and I am the chairman,” he said.

“We always said Mohsin was a particular horse for a particular course. He is a disruptor, an entrepreneur, he is an agitator.

“We’ve added a significant number of stores and we’ve changed a lot, but it now needs a different animal. In the nicest possible way, Mohsin’s work is largely complete.”

Asda is 67.5% owned by private equity firm TDR Capital, with Mohsin Issa holding a 22.5% stake. Earlier this year, Zuber Issa, Mohsin’s brother, sold his 22.5% stake in the retailer to focus on his other businesses.

The supermarket chain was previously owned by Walmart, the US retail giant, which still retains a 10% stake in Asda.

The brothers and TDR Capital purchased Asda for £6.8bn in 2021.

Last week, Asda chief financial officer Michael Gleeson set out the retailer’s plans to turn around its performance by investing in improving its store estate, adding more staff hours to replenish shelves more quickly and building customer loyalty.