Asda is investing £13m into its stores over the festive period after posting a drop in third quarter sales.
Revenues, excluding fuel, were down 2.5% to £5.3bn for the grocery giant in the period to 30 September, while like-for-likes dropped 4.8%. However, this represented an improvement on its previous quarter.
Asda insisted its focus on key priorities – improving availability, enhancing the customer experience and investing in value –outlined in its second quarter update, which was supported by a £30m investment in store hours, was “already making a difference”.
The supermarket said it was looking to drive further improvements in the upcoming quarter with an additional £13m investment in store hours to ensure more staff members were available to help shoppers during the busy shopping period.
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Asda chairman Stuart Rose said: “We have undergone the largest transformation in our history during the last three years – doubling our store footprint, expanding into the strategically important growth markets of convenience and food-to-go, and overhauling our digital capabilities.
“We have laid solid foundations to drive long term growth, but the unprecedented scale of these changes has absorbed a huge amount of the leadership’s time with a temporary impact on Asda’s customer experience in stores.
He continued: “As a key priority, we have been investing further and taking the right decisions to deliver an enhanced and more consistent in-store experience for our customers, as we set out in our Q2 results in August.
“Now it is time to deliver the best possible experience in our stores day-in-day out – and pull out all the stops for customers this Christmas and beyond.”
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