Asda: Sales drop for supermarket chain as customers switch to rivals

Supermarket chain Asda has seen a drop in sales after the firm saw many of its customers switch to its rivals.

Transcript

00:00Hello, I'm Michael Crosland, Business Reporter with the Yorkshire Post, here with the news

00:04this afternoon that sales at supermarket chain Asda have dropped further over the last quarter

00:10as the company lost customers to some of its rivals. Bosses at Asda have said that the

00:16company saw its share of the grocery market sink over recent months. The news comes as

00:22Asda revealed that its revenues, excluding fuel, were up 2% for the first half of the

00:27year, though like-for-like sales slipped by 2.1%. Revenues in the firm's second quarter

00:34were also down 2.2%. Last month's industry data from Kantar showed that Asda had a 12.7%

00:42share of the UK grocery market over three months to July 7th, shrinking from a 13.6%

00:49share a year earlier. This also came as rivals including Tesco and Morrison's all gained

00:56customers. Michael Gleeson, the retail's finance chief, said that the company was investing

01:02heavily to improve its store standards, product availability and staffing hours. Asda has

01:08invested £30 million to increase its staff levels and improve stock replenishment and

01:12cleaning. That's all we have for the time being, I'm Michael Crosland, reporting for

01:17the Yorkshire Post.