Asda sales shine for Wal-Mart
Double digit sales growth in third quarter
November 13 2003
Asda has been one of Wal-Mart’s best performing divisions with double digit sales growth in the third quarter.
Wal-Mart’s international division made an operating profit of $564m the three months to the end of October, up 28.5 per on the same period in 2002. Total international sales were $11.5 billion, up 15.7 per cent.
Wal-Mart does not give specific figures for each country but said the strongest sales performances came from Mexico, Brazil, the UK and Canada.
The company said Asda’s sales growth was in the low double digits while like-for-like sales grew in the high single digits. The increases were driven equally by higher customer numbers and higher spending.
Food sales outperformed the UK supermarket sector, with Asda’s food market share increasing to 13.1 per cent. Extra Special, Asda’s premium food range, added 130 new lines, taking the total to 360, with a further 100 to be launched before Christmas. Sales of the range have doubled over the last year.
Non food sales continued to grow rapidly, with a sales growth rate in the high teens. The George clothing brand was the number one schoolwear retailer by unit sales acoss the qurter, selling almost double the number of units than the nearest competitor.
The best performing general merchandise areas were homeware, electronics and seasonal, with Halloween sales increasing substantially year-on-year.
The initial performance of the two trial standalone George stores is “encouraging”, said Wal-Mart.
