Asda’s new chief executive, Andy Bond, has announced that he will strive to keep Asda’s prices down as a key to remaining competitive over the next 18 months.

The announcement comes a week before Asda opens its first stores in Northern Ireland.

Talking to the Times, Bond said that his absolute priority was to ensure Asda are the lowest price supermarket, and has already demonstrated his commitment to this strategy by cutting over 1,400 jobs among head office and store management, the newspaper stated. “The business need to be faster, nimbler and more customer focused,” he said.

It was also reported that since taking up the post, Bond has implemented more buy one get one free offers to compliment the supermarket’s £361m investment into lower prices this year. The Times also highlighted that Bond’s strategies could have contributed to the supermarkets recent increase in market share.

Asda is facing increasing competition from Morrison’s and archrival Sainsbury’s, which is competing with Asda over the position of second-largest chain behind Tesco.

In another article, the Times reported that owing to poor foresight on Asda’s part, the bank of land they own for the purpose of expansion is relatively small in comparison to that of Tesco’s. This could mean limited options for increasing market share and Lee Scott, chief executive of Wal-Mart, has suggested that Asda could look at moves to smaller, convenience stores.

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