Bonus blow for staff as Asda results disappoint

The majority of staff at Asda are to go without bonuses this year after the supermarket chain’s performance fell short of hopes, it emerged today.

Last year, 113,000, or 94%, of staff shared £19m (€27.7m) but it is estimated only 46,500 workers at around 100 stores will secure next month’s payout.

The company, which has 300 sites and around 140,000 staff in the UK, admitted recently that its performance had faltered amid fierce competition.

A spokesman for Asda said trading figures for 2005 were still to be finalised but that it was likely 100 stores had met targets, based on profitability.

He added: “2005 was a hard year but we’re immensely proud that, in spite of the tough trading environment, a number of our stores have hit their bonus targets.

“We’ve a strong business plan and new targets and are well-placed to deliver the results needed for even more to earn a bonus in 2006.”

Chief executive Andy Bond and around 1,000 staff at Asda House in Leeds will miss out on bonuses because of the company’s overall performance.

Asda, which is owned by US retail giant Wal-Mart, has pledged to lower prices “more aggressively” this year in a bid to increase its competitiveness.

Mr Bond, who took over earlier this year after the departure of Tony de Nunzio, said recently that Asda had never lost its focus on prices but admitted that the gap with its rivals had narrowed.

He also said Asda had a “winning strategy” but had not been implementing this strategy as well as it could have done.

Wal-Mart revealed that same-store sales grew by 2.2% in December, although it has been reported that the UK part of the business exceeded the 2.8% underlying sales achieved by rival chain Morrisons.

Market leader Tesco recently said like-for-like sales grew by 5.7% in the seven weeks to January 7, while resurgent Sainsbury’s achieved 5.2% over a similar period.