The boss of Wal-Mart Stores Inc’s (NYSE:WMT) UK chain Asda, Sean Clarke, is to leave his post at the end of the year after just 18 months in the job.
Asda’s current president and chief executive will be replaced by deputy chief executive, Roger Burnley, who joined Asda a year ago from rival UK supermarket chain J Sainsbury PLC (LON:SBRY), the company said in a statement on Monday.
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Burnley previously worked at Asda - the UK's number four supermarket - between 1996 and 2002.
In a media interview, Dave Cheesewright, Walmart International’s chief executive, said: "Roger was purposefully brought back to Asda to partner with Sean ahead of the transition to Roger taking up the position of CEO.
"He and Sean have worked as a great team and I'm really confident in Roger's ability to continue building upon our returning momentum."
In the face of intense competition in the UK market, Asda's performance improved recently and in August it announced its first quarterly sales growth of 1.8% in three years.