British supermarket chain Asda has reportedly avoided a fine after it failed to meet its deadline to disconnect from former owner Walmart’s computer systems.
According to a report by The Telegraph, it is thought that Walmart has agreed to push back the February 2025 target for moving the British supermarket’s online grocery business and computer systems onto its own platform.
Asda was purchased by the Issa brothers and TDR Capital from former owner Walmart in 2021.
The retailer describes the £800 million migration from Walmart’s systems to its own as “Europe’s largest systems implementation programme”.
The digital transformation plans, dubbed ‘Project Future’, involve the separation of more than 2,500 systems from Walmart.
Last September the company put out a statement outlining progress made in rolling out the initiative, including the completion of migration onto several brand-new systems: finance, checkouts, HR and payroll, CRM, depots, clothing brand George.com, and a new store picking system.
This process included the implementation of 16,500 new checkouts and 28,000 Scan & Go devices across its stores, as well as the migration of more than 9.6 million historic George orders to a new online platform.
The rollout has not come without its problems, with a glitch linked to an IT update leading to nearly 10,000 employees receiving incorrect payslips during March 2024.
Another glitch also saw thousands of George orders impacted later in the year.
Commenting on the missed deadline, an Asda spokesperson told The Telegraph: “We continue to make good progress delivering Project Future and have successfully migrated large parts of our business to brand-new systems. We will continue to take a pragmatic approach when delivering the remainder of the programme and Walmart continue to be incredibly supportive in every way in helping with the implementation.”
Asda has been open about its mission: the company seeks to reposition itself as the UK’s second-largest supermarket with plans to open 300 new convenience stores by the end of 2026.
However, these ambitious plans have recently suffered a significant blow, with figures published in August 2024 revealing that the grocer lost more than one per cent of its market share and six per cent of its sales across the 12 weeks to 4 August.
In stark contrast, over the same period Sainsbury’s – which after 11 years in third position overtook Asda in 2015 (save for one month in 2019 when it slipped back into third place) – experienced its highest year-on-year increase in market share since July 1997.
