Andy Clarke to step down as ASDA CEO

Andy Clarke has confirmed in an interview with Retail Week that he is to step down as CEO of ASDA.

His successor will be incoming Chief Operating Officer Roger Burnley, who is to join ASDA from Sainsbury’s, where he holds the role of Retail and Operations Director. 

Clarke said of the changes:

"I said that I wanted to find somebody who had the ability to be my successor and it took us some time to find the right person, the right cultural fit, the right sort of character and leader that can run the business. He's a great leader and he's going to be a great colleague”.

"I look forward to spending time with him and preparing him for what hopefully should be his next role."

“I'm in no rush to do anything else and we are on a three-year journey from a strategic plan perspective. I'm very happy to deliver that and work through that and then we can talk about that from there"

The news comes after ASDA reported a seventh consecutive quarter of sales decline, with a drop of 5.7% in like-for-like sales during the 13 weeks ended 30^th March 2016.

ASDA’s parent company Walmart has expressed disappointment at the grocer’s performance and, in last week’s AGM, CEO Dave Cheesewright said that he would look at the possibility of further price cuts, in a bid to ‘shift the balance in ASDA from protecting profit to protecting share’.

In January 2016, ASDA announced plans to cut hundreds of head office jobs and invest over £300 million in price cuts.

Source : Insight DIY

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