American supermarket giant Wal-Mart to re-brand products to sell at bargain prices in Asda and make them lower than Aldi and Lidl
Retail giant, known for its competitiveness on price, keen to give budget rivals Aldi and Lidl a run for their money
ASDA’S owner WALMART has hinted it will make its UK prices even lower than budget rivals ALDI and LIDL.
The US giant could re-brand Wal-Mart products sold at bargain prices in the States as Asda for the UK market.
That would hugely ramp up the competition that’s brought low prices in recent years.
Wal-Mart, known for its competitiveness on price, admitted yesterday it has responded slowly to German budget chains in the UK.
Chief administration boss Scott Price has now raised the stakes, saying it will use its bargaining power to “invest more aggressively in price”.
He said Asda would be able to sell at UK prices “that no one else can match”.
The US giant has traditionally let Asda, which it bought in 1999, make its own way.
But Sean Clarke, Asda’s chief exec since last July, used to work for Wal-Mart in Asia and knows it well.
Mr Price said: “One thing maybe we’d criticise ourselves for is we didn’t start repositioning the business sooner.
“What Sean is able to do with his global experience is know what levers to pull.”
Asda has slipped behind Sainsbury’s in the battle to be Britain’s second biggest supermarket, with Tesco still in front.
In the April to June period last year its sales fell 7.5 per cent year on year, its worst performance on record. Over the three months to September, they were down 5.8 per cent.
Mr Clarke is moving it towards recovery, but much work remains. He is trying to make stores cleaner and less cluttered, with more staff on shop floors and more fresh food and meat available.
Neil Saunders of analysts GLOBAL DATA said Wal-Mart can “certainly make a difference by reducing and streamlining costs”. He added: “If this can be passed to shoppers in lower prices, it will help improve Asda’s recovery prospects.”