Asda Finding Success After Walmart

Stuck in a rut of their own making, Walmart, while owning and operating Asda stifled its growth with a supply chain mentality from a bygone era according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Johnson continued, “within the foodservice world, the supply chain is important, however never more important than customers, the food, and service. There is not a country in the world where consumers want to hike through 24 aisles looking for three items for dinner or breakfast.”

The world is seeing the flaws with ‘JUST IN TIME INVENTORY’, in every sector of retail or manufacturing.  That is a short-term problem that will be resolved with proactive solutions within a year.  In the case of Asda the new owners have looked at the undercurrents of consumers want’s and needs and they are setting a new direction.  Let’s first look at some of the relevance facts driving consumers choice for what’s for dinner, and where and how they want a solution:

1.       Recent Grocerant ScoreCards found 82.3% of consumers don’t know what’s for dinner at Noon, and 61.1 don’t know what’ s for dinner at 4PM %.

2.       83.1% all dinners have at least 1 grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat meal component and 68.4% have two meal components.

3.       When asked if they wanted to cook dinner from scratch or assemble dinner from fresh meal components 90.4 % of Gen Z chose assemble from Fresh Prepared Meal Components and Millennials 82.7% chose meal components.

4.       Seventy-three percent of retail prepared food purchases are taken to go

5.       Prepared food purchases are frequently a planned purchase among 59% of shoppers, while 41% of shoppers said they buy prepared foods on impulse. Dinner has the highest amount of prepared food buys with 79% of respondents making purchases for that meal, while lunch comes in at 77% and breakfast at 62%.

6.       55% of consumers would like to try autonomous EV delivery

So, the new owners of the retail group, Mohsin Issa and Zuber Issa, stated, "Our plans to rollout Asda On the Move will bring Asda to new customers, enabling them to pick up food-to-go, essentials for an evening meal, or treat themselves to premium Extra Special products from a range of convenient locations.

"We continue to see significant opportunities to drive innovation across the business, and we look forward to working with the Asda team to execute our growth strategy."

The 3,000 square-feet 'Asda on the Move' stores offer up to 2,500 products, including a selection of premium 'Extra Special' range and a more extensive range of fresh produce and chilled items than other fuel forecourts.

The outlets will also offer foodservice facilities from EG Group and their partner brands, such as Greggs and Subway.

Chief finance officer at Asda, John Fallon, added, "Looking ahead to the rest of the year, the first phase of the rollout of 'Asda On the Move' is an exciting next step for the business, enabling us to supply a new convenience store offer, complementing our other store formats."

Grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food continues to drive growth and innovation in every sector of food retail today according to Johnson.  Is your company still running ‘grocery’ stores that look more like 1950 that 2021?  Are your customer required to walk un and down 24 aisles to find three or four items for breakfast, lunch or dinner? Why?

No, UK retailer Asda will launch 28 new 'Asda on the Move' convenience stores on EG Group forecourts this year, following the success of a trial project launched in October 2020. So, the rollout will begin next month in Knowsley, Crewe, Skelmersdale and Holtspur.

How successful is the new Grab-N-Go? Well, Asda will supply products to these outlets under a wholesale agreement with EG Group, which will own and operate each store. The company aims to expand to 200 'Asda on the Move' stores by the end of next year and roll out more stores in 2023.

Maybe even more disappointing is the need for management changes at Asda.  So, the company also announced that chief operating officer Anthony Hemmerdinger, and strategy officer Preyash Thakrar have both left the business. Now we all knew that in August, chief executive Roger Burnley stepped down ahead of his scheduled departure next year.  Don’t you think if the BOD had given them permission to ‘follow the customer, or sell the consumer what they want and how they want it.  Those changes would not have been needed?  Why can’t your company find a way to move forward rather than ‘SPIN’ missteps into a more familiar prologue.

For international corporate presentations, regional chain presentations, educational forums, or keynotes contact: Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions.  His extensive experience as a multi-unit restaurant operator, consultant, brand / product positioning expert, and public speaking will leave success clues for all. For more information visit GrocerantGuru.com, FoodserviceSolutions.US or call 1-253-759-7869