Business correspondent,London(wp/es):
Asda is set to slash hundreds of jobs from head office as it started to look like the biggest loser of the supermarkets over the Christmas period.
Tesco, Morrisons and Sainsbury’s all outperformed over the holidays, and it is thought Asda, which has struggled in the last 12 months, continued to fall behind.
A spokesman said: "It’s well documented that in recent years, customers have radically changed the way they shop.
"As a result, the industry faces major challenges and the certainty of permanent structural change. In the context of this, we also have to further change the way we do business."
He added that consultations with staff started on Monday: “We have made some difficult but necessary decisions but we must discuss these with our colleagues before we talk publicly.”
The grocer, part of US giant WalMart, declined to provide further details on possible redundancies, but earlier Sky News, citing sources, reported that they would be focused at its Leeds head office and could hit the hundreds.
Asda last week revealed plans to spend another £500 million to lower prices amid the fierce industry price war brought on by the rise of discounters Aldi and Lidl.
That sum is in addition to the £1 billion it pledged to spend in November 2013 to slash prices over five years.
Asda is due to provide an update on its latest quarter of trading on February 18, but some analysts are already predicting that it had a poor festive season.
Data from research firm Kantar Worldpanel said its sales were down 3.5% in the 12 weeks to January 3, while its market share dropped from 16.8% to 16.2%.
Asda is set to slash hundreds of jobs from head office as it started to look like the biggest loser of the supermarkets over the Christmas period.
Tesco, Morrisons and Sainsbury’s all outperformed over the holidays, and it is thought Asda, which has struggled in the last 12 months, continued to fall behind.
A spokesman said: "It’s well documented that in recent years, customers have radically changed the way they shop.
"As a result, the industry faces major challenges and the certainty of permanent structural change. In the context of this, we also have to further change the way we do business."
He added that consultations with staff started on Monday: “We have made some difficult but necessary decisions but we must discuss these with our colleagues before we talk publicly.”
The grocer, part of US giant WalMart, declined to provide further details on possible redundancies, but earlier Sky News, citing sources, reported that they would be focused at its Leeds head office and could hit the hundreds.
Asda last week revealed plans to spend another £500 million to lower prices amid the fierce industry price war brought on by the rise of discounters Aldi and Lidl.
That sum is in addition to the £1 billion it pledged to spend in November 2013 to slash prices over five years.
Asda is due to provide an update on its latest quarter of trading on February 18, but some analysts are already predicting that it had a poor festive season.
Data from research firm Kantar Worldpanel said its sales were down 3.5% in the 12 weeks to January 3, while its market share dropped from 16.8% to 16.2%.
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