Asda co-owner Mohsin Issa will face questions from British lawmakers as they look to clarify comments made by one of his executives about the grocer‘s fuel pricing strategy at a previous hearing.
Reuters reports that the lower house of parliament’s Business and Trade Committee is concerned about apparent discrepancies between statements made in evidence on June 27 by chief commercial officer Kris Comerford, and the findings by Britain’s competition regulator in its market study of the supply of road fuel.
The CMA said that in 2022, UK drivers who bought fuel at supermarkets paid around 6 pence per litre more than they would have done otherwise due to the traditional ‘big four’ supermarkets upping their margins.
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The competition watchdog blamed the weakening competition on a decision by Asda and Morrisons, the traditional price-leaders on fuel, to compete less hard so as to achieve higher margins, and a lack of competitive response to this by others.
But Comerford told the committee Asda’s fuel pricing strategy had “not changed over many years”.
In a letter to the committee, Issa said Comerford had correctly stated Asda’s strategic position – to be the best value fuel retailer in the UK.
He also said fuel and food should be considered as a single business, not separately as the committee had done.
The committee is also seeking clarification on Comerford’s denial that Asda is employing so-called fire and rehire tactics.
CMA chief executive Sarah Cardell will appear before Issa to discuss details of its market study of the road fuel market.
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