Asda revenues up as George ‘outperforms’

Supermarket giant Asda has reported promising financials for the first quarter ending March 31, during which its revenues rose 6.6 percent to 5.3 billion pounds.

Among the contributors, the retailer’s clothing brand George at Asda was cited to be a strong benefactor as it “outperformed the fashion and homewares markets during the quarter”, Asda stated.

This was evidenced by a 3 percent rise in clothing revenue, totaling 293 million pounds, an increase of 3 percent on a like-for-like basis.

This was largely driven by schoolwear, which saw an 11 percent uptick in sales, and homewares, for which sales rose 11.7 percent boosted by the launch of a new collaborative collection with Stacey Solomon.

Another notable increase was triggered by the relaunch of George’s adult denim range, where sales rose 8 percent compared to the previous year.

During the period, Asda set about investing heavily into its store network, converting newly acquired sites into Asda Express locations as part of a strategic expansion into growth markets of convenience and food-to-go.

This was noted by co-owner Mohsin Issa, who added: “We did this while continuing to deliver great range, value and convenience, including investing in lower prices and the quality of our food and non-food at a time when the household budgets of our customers remain under pressure.”

Next to this, Asda said it had commenced a 50 million pound store upgrade programme to improve customer experience across 173 of its stores, with 50 of such locations to receive “major upgrades” as part of an enhancement programme.