Asda has clocked up a record number of customers as home cooking boosts its shopper figures, but its sales growth has begun to tail off.
Asda announced it now boasts 18 million customers a week while releasing figures for the second quarter. Sales eased back to 7.2 per cent from 8.4 per cent in like-for-like sales excluding fuel.
Judith McKenna, Asda’s chief financial officer, said that the decline in sales was largely the result of a drop in food inflation, which she said had hit a two-year low and put the customer increase down to the increased popularity of scratch cooking.
Asda’s parent company, Wal-Mart Stores Inc, posted a 13.3 per cent rise in operating profit at its international businesses, helped by a strong performance by Asda.
It reported underlying international operating profit was $1.38 billion (£832bn) in the three months to July 31, with international sales at constant exchange rates up 11.5 per cent at $28.2bn.
In the first quarter, Wal-Mart’s international operating income rose 7.8 per cent on sales, up 9.1 per cent at constant exchange rates.
Asda’s market share has reached 17 per cent, up from 16.7 per cent in the same period last year. Tesco holds 31 per cent of the market with Sainsbury’s at 16 per cent share, according to TNS figures.
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