Asda Stores Ltd owner Mohsin Issa has faced his second setback in the last few days after it was revealed the supermarket had lost a chunk of its market share in the last year.
Over the weekend, chairman Stuart Rose said he had been “embarrassed” by the decline under the Issa brothers, Zuber and Mohsin.
Today, Kantar figures revealed Asda’s market share dropped from 13.7% to 12.6% in the last twelve months as of the quarter to August.
Driven by a 6% plunge in sales, the only large supermarket barring Co-op to see revenues decline, Asda market share appears to have been eaten up by Sainsbury’s and Tesco.
Sainsbury’s posted its largest annual gains for 1997 today keeping it on track to as the fastest-growing traditional supermarket.
Mohsin Issa, who runs the day-to-day management of the supermarket, has been urged by Rose to take a back seat from business.
Rose said in an interview with the Telegraph: “We need a full-time fully experienced retail executive to come in.
“In the nicest possible way, Mohsin’s work is largely complete.”
Mohsin’s departure from managing the supermarket could see him make a similar move to his brother Zuber, who decided to exit his 22.5% stake, selling to private equity co-owner TDR Capital.