Today in retail: Asda loses its equal pay appeal

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Asda has lost its appeal on an equal pay employment tribunal brought by around 10,000 of its current and former staff.

The Walmart-owned big four grocer had appealed against a judgment made in 2016 that women employees, who mainly work in stores, could compare themselves to male staff, who mainly work in distribution centres.

Asda today lost that appeal but hinted that it would carry on battling the ruling.

It’s a blow for the supermarket, which earlier this month posted its first quarter of sales growth for three years.

In other news, John Lewis is piloting a tradesman booking service and consumer confidence rebounded in August as shoppers responded to “some signs of stability” in the wider UK economy.

Quote of the day

“The Index has a lot of ground to regain to get back to black. So is this month’s rise significant? Or could we simply be witnessing a dead cat bounce over the dog days of summer?”

Gfk head of market dynamics Joe Staton on the Consumer Confidence Index