ASDA sales growth slows

Supermarket firm Asda suffered a slowdown in sales growth as shoppers were squeezed by rising prices and muted wages growth.

Britain’s second-biggest supermarket chain said today that sales at stores open over a year, excluding fuel and VAT sales tax, rose 1 per cent in the fourteen weeks to 7 January.

Asda said underlying sales rose just 0.1 per cent in the last three months of 2011, followed by a surge in demand as customers took advantage of January sales.

But the figures still compare favourably to Tesco, the market leader, who reported a 2.3 per cent drop in underlying UK sales for the six weeks to 7 January.

Asda, which trades from around 540 stores, lagged Britain’s grocery market in 2010 but fought back in 2011, helped by its purchase of smaller format Netto stores and a re-launch of its own-brand food range.