Bsupermarket group Asda slumped to a near £1 billion ($1.3 billion) loss last year, reflecting executive chairman Allan Leighton's push to cut prices in an effort to win back shoppers and a raft of one-off costs.
Britain's third-biggest grocer after Tesco and Sainsbury's saw its pretax loss widen to £989 million in 2025 from £599 milion in 2024, according to annual accounts filed on Friday (June 19) . Total sales, including fuel, fell 3.4% to £25.9 billion.
Leighton - who returned to Asda in November 2024, more than two decades after he served as CEO - had warned in March 2025 that his plan to be 5% to 10% cheaper than traditional rivals would "materially reduce" 2025 profit and said rebuilding Asda would take up to five years.
ONE-OFF COSTS
The group is majority owned by private equity firm TDR Capital.
Former owner Walmart still holds 10%.The pretax loss includes £656 million of one-off costs, mainly comprised of £284 million related to Asda's troubled, but now complete, IT separation from Walmart and a £344 million non-cash impairment after a revaluation of Asda's property portfolio.
“The reported loss does not reflect the underlying financial strength of the business and continued powerful cash generation," a spokesperson for Asda said, noting the group had a strong balance sheet, with £1.3 billion in cash and £2.1 billion of total liquidity at the year end, and the majority of borrowings secured into the next decade.
Net debt was £3.1 billion, a reduction of £500 million on the prior year.
Asda had reported in March that underlying earnings for 2025, or adjusted EBITDA after rent, fell 33% to £764 million.Last month, it reported another fall in quarterly underlying sales, though the pace of decline eased.
Industry data, also published last month, showed Asda continuing to lose market share.