Asda co-owner Mohsin Issa is injecting £30m into the supermarket as it continues to lose market share.
The investment package will be implemented before the end of the year, and will be used to increase staffing hours and improve customer service levels, The Telegraph reported.
A spokesman told the title: “We recognise that there are some areas where we can and need to improve, and have set out our plan for colleagues to improve the availability of products in stores, the overall customer experience and ensuring we have the right trade plan throughout the remainder of the year.”
Grocery sales figures released by NIQ revealed that Asda’s sales were still falling with a 5.9% drop in the 12 weeks to July 13 compared to a year earlier. The chain is the only major supermarket where sales are on the decline.
Meanwhile, Kantar data shows that since Asda’s takeover by the billionaire brothers Mohsin and Zuber Issa and private equity firm TDR in 2021, its market share has fallen from 14.8% to 12.7%.
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Earlier this week, The Telegraph revealed less than half of Asda employees have confidence in the supermarket’s strategy.
“While we are making significant progress in building a bigger and better Asda, there are some areas where we currently need to do better, and we are focused on addressing these,” the retailer said.
Asda’s weak performance has resulted in recent criticism from union bosses, who have claimed that the grocer has been “cutting hours from the shop floor and not investing in the stores”.
Workers at the supermarket’s Lowestoft store are set to walk out for the second time in a dispute over working conditions.
GMB Union confirmed that more than 170 employees at the superstore in East Suffolk will go on strike from 3am to 10pm on 9 August after claiming the grocer’s management had been “burying their heads in the sand”.
Back in May, the grocer unveiled a £50m store upgrade programme designed to improve the shopping experience for customers in its larger supermarkets and superstores.
The programme, which is running across 170 stores in total, is expected to complete by the end of November.
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