Asda will prioritise converting the IT systems in its smaller stores for the rest of the year to minimise disruption from its ‘Project Future’ transformation over the Christmas period.

The retailer said it would concentrate its transformation efforts on 850 smaller sites, including petrol stations, smaller supermarkets, and Asda Express convenience stores over the golden quarter, rather than its larger stores where the bulk of its customers shop.

The conversion of its superstores and depots will pick up speed from early January, following the peak trading period.

Asda chief digital officer Matt Kelleher said: “We’re continuing to deliver different aspects of the programme at pace, while being mindful of any potential impact on colleagues, customers and suppliers during the busiest period of the year.”

The grocer has termed Project Future “Europe’s largest IT transformation project”, as it aims to change 2,500 systems as it moves off the infrastructure of former owner Walmart following its £6.8bn acquisition by the Issa brothers and TDR Capital in 2021.

It has hired hundreds of new roles to work on the transformation and has plunged £430m into the project, according to Asda parent company Bellis Finco’s latest accounts.

The supermarket said focusing on smaller stores in the golden quarter was a “sensible and pragmatic” approach, adding: “It was the right thing to do for customers as it will help to give them the best possible Christmas”.

It noted that the remainder of Project Future will continue “at pace” as it works towards a full separation from Walmart’s systems.

The grocer said the changes will allow it to make improvements quickly, fine-tune its operations and maximise its data capabilities, while it also believes the changes will give it “the best systems in the grocery sector”.

So far, Asda has completed the migration onto several new systems including finance, checkouts, HR and payroll, CRM, depots, its clothing brand George.com, and a new store picking system.

Over the past nine months, this has involved the introduction of 16,500 new checkouts and 28,000 Scan & Go devices across its stores, the full conversion of 20 depots, the migration of over 9.6 million historic George orders to a new online platform, and the launch of a new store picking system to streamline the processing of over four million items daily from delivery to store shelves.

However, the transformation plan has hit some stumbling blocks with the transition to a new payroll system leading to a glitch that impacted thousands of workers, earlier this year.

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