Bungling Asda boss booted out

Last week he vowed he’d stay and turnaround sales slump. Now . . .

ThE boss of struggling Asda has left – just one week after promising to stay to kickstart sales.

The supermarket’s US owner Walmart said Andy clarke (pictured) would leave at the end of next month. it marks a humbling end for clarke, whose six-year tenure as chief executive has been marked by one calamity after another as sales fell off a cliff in the face of competition from Aldi and Lidl.

Just seven days earlier clarke said he planned to see through a three-year turnaround plan to reverse the sales slump. ‘i’m in no rush to do anything else,’ he declared. he had even chosen his successor, roger Burnley, a former Asda supply chain director recruited from Sainsbury’s.

But yesterday Walmart kicked these plans into touch with the announcement that not only was clarke to leave, but that his successor would be Sean clarke, Walmart’s boss of its china business.

A senior source said Walmart, which bought Asda in 1999, had changed its mind quite dramatically and quite recently on strategy. A Walmart spokesman said: ‘Andy clarke has decided the timing is right to step aside from his role with the company.’

With clarke’s exit, all the major grocers have changed their bosses in the wake of the turmoil sweeping the industry.

clarke, who has been with Asda for 20 years in total, will step down at the end of July. he will stay on as an adviser for the rest of 2016.

Sean clarke, a Brit who began his career with Asda in 1996, will start in a month.

Two years ago Andy clarke launched a turnaround strategy announcing plans to invest £1bn to bring down prices. But this has failed to transform trading. in August sales fell 4.7pc, which clarke said was a nadir. Six months later they worsened, falling 5.8pc.

clarke, 53, the son of a policeman, grew up in Grantham, Lincolnshire. After leaving grammar school with one O-level he worked for his local Fine Fare supermarket, which morphed into Somerfield. After ten years at morrisons, he joined Asda. After a spell with matalan and iceland, clarke returned to Asda in 2005 as retail director under chief executive Andy Bond.

The source said Walmart appears happy with the strategy but just wanted someone fresh at the top. Dave cheesewright, president and chief executive of Walmart international, said: ‘There’s lots of work going on at Asda but we are pretty dissatisfied with performance at the moment.

‘So watch this space on Asda, but it will be painful, i think.’