Asda is to invest £1bn over the next five years as it aims to lower prices and improve its products for customers.
Its five year vision is to improve its core business, widen its customer reach to 70 per cent from 53 per cent and increase Click & Collect capabilities following increasing price pressure from discounters Lidl and Aldi.
Like-for-like growth slowed to 0.3 per cent in Q3 following stronger first (1.3 per cent) and second quarters (0.7 per cent.)
But Andy Clarke, CEO, said he was pleased with Asda‘s performance in the third quarter of the year.
He said: “We‘ve continued to invest in lowering prices which has held them down for our customers while driving volume growth. This means we enter the crucial fourth quarter in a solid position.”
The supermarket will also focus on multi-channel and say they expect to generate £3bn of online sales annually by 2018.
It will increase the number of Click and Collect locations from 218 to over 1,000 in the next five years.
Greg Bromley, Consultant at Conlumino, said the upcoming Christmas period would be vital for Asda. “Improving perceptions of quality will be crucial for the grocer, especially over the upcoming Christmas trading period, when many consumers look to stretch the budget and trade-up to more premium lines.”
The grocer has looked to follow Tesco into expanding its existing estate with the firm considering community spaces in-store and recently announced it will host Barclays branches in selected stores.
