Asda exec King in shock exit
Chief operating officer at supermarket giant Asda, Simon King, has quit after only six months. King joined Asda on 10 January this year, moving from Saudi Arabia where he was chief executive of supermarket operator Panda Retail, a subsidiary of The Savola Group. Prior to that he was chief executive of Tesco Kipa in Turkey, and has also worked for Tesco’s operations in South Korea and eastern Europe. He was also previously at Safeway. At Asda, King took up the role vacated by Andy Clarke when he moved up to become chief executive. It is understood Asda will announce a replacement for King at the end of June. His responsibilities covered retail, supply chain, distribution, customer service as well as the Walmart-owned chain’s internal communications. Asda said in a statement: “Sometimes, it just doesn’t work out. Clearly whilst Simon has considerable talents and retail experience, we felt his impact wasn’t being realised as quickly as we hoped. We wish him well for the future and appreciate all his hard work over the past five months.”