Loyal staff and low prices in this time of soaring inflation are key to offering customers value

February was an exciting time at Asda. It’s when we thank our colleagues for all their hard work in making 2007 such a successful year. This year, we are sharing a record £21 million performance bonus pool across 127,000 store and depot colleagues.

Asda has previously identified the importance of recruiting and retaining the best people in the business and the bonus is just one part of this commitment. And it seems to be working. Our turnover of people is half the industry average and Asda is the only supermarket to be featured in the Guardian’s Britain’s Top 100 Employers 2007 and 2008.

The longer a colleague works for us, the more the customer benefits from their experience and knowledge. Our focus is on creating a great colleague environment that drives this loyalty.

As I suggested in my last column, our customers are in for some belt tightening this year. Since then, a number of reports suggest food prices are soaring like never before.

It is true that there are inflationary pressures on a number of core food items such as eggs, milk and bread. Thankfully, we’re doing a good job at keeping a lid on rising prices. For example, a 100-item shopping trolley at Asda increased only 5 per cent on January 2006, compared with between 8 and 10.3 per cent at our rivals.

Value retailers are committed to keeping prices as low as possible, but some increases are inevitable on certain items. Yes, some prices have gone up, but we are constantly looking at cutting prices where we can to counter any increases elsewhere. We’re also offering iconic products for prices never seen before – the£15 suit, the£5 women’s work essentials and£1 Easter eggs.

And speaking of value – it’s not a word often associated with sustainability, but I’ll finish off this month with a challenge to retailers. I would like them to accept that going green doesn’t need to cost more; in fact, it should cost customers less.

Thanks to the savings we have made by reducing packaging on own-brand products, we are returning£10 million to customers through lowering prices across all our lines. We’re calling it Green Rollbacks and it forms part of our commitment to reduce own-label packaging by 25 per cent by the end of this year.

Therefore, I would ask retailers to make a greener lifestyle affordable for all – not just those who can afford to pay a premium.

Andy Clarke, retail director, Asda