Supermarket chain Asda slumped deeper into the red last year, according to its most recent set of accounts filed with Companies House.
The UK’s third-biggest supermarket reported a pre-tax loss of £989m – a 65% rise in losses from 2024, driven by investment in price cuts and one-off costs.
The accounts also showed total sales falling 3% to £25.9bn. Leighton warned that heavy investment in price would “materially reduce” 2025 profits.
The pre-tax loss figure included £656m of one-off costs, £284m of which related to its nightmarish IT separation from its previous owner, Walmart. Net debt, meanwhile, was £3.1bn for the year, a reduction of £500m from 2024.
“The reported loss does not reflect the underlying financial strength of the business and continued powerful cash generation,” a spokesperson for Asda said.
The annual figures are the first to fully represent the impact of the return of Allan Leighton as Asda boss, having taken over as executive chair in late 2024.
Leighton has warned that his turnaround plan would take up to five years to fully bear fruit, and Asda continues to bleed market share to rivals, particularly the discounters, for years. According to grocery market share data from Worldpanel, Aldi is breathing down its neck in fourth place.
Since returning to Asda, Leighton has looked to cut costs and invest heavily in price in a bid to lure customers back to the retailer and get its market share back into growth.
On May 29, Leighton insisted that Asda was making progress on his turnaround plan, delivering like-for-like sales improvement in the first quarter of the 2026 financial year – up to -0-.8% from -4.2% in the three months to March 31, 2026.
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