Asda recorded £4bn in sales in the 12 weeks to 1 November, down 0.5 per cent year-on-year, making it the only major UK grocer to post a decline for the period. The figure, from Worldpanel's market data, cuts the chain's grocery share from 11.6 per cent to 11.3 per cent and stalls a turnaround that chairman Allan Leighton had only recently declared underway.

The result lands months after Leighton said the business was in the "foothills of recovery". In the seven weeks to mid-August, Asda posted a 0.2 per cent rise in like-for-like revenue excluding fuel — its first positive sales figures in more than two years. That recovery has now reversed.

What does the data say about Asda's rivals?

Every competitor grew while Asda shrank. Lidl led the market with a 6.6 per cent sales increase, and Morrisons added two per cent. Iceland was the only other chain to stand still, with flat returns; every other supermarket in the dataset grew sales year-on-year.

Lidl also tightened its hold on British shoppers. Its market share rose by 0.4 percentage points to 8.6 per cent — the biggest gain of any UK grocer in the period.

Online-only grocer Ocado delivered its 30th consecutive period of double-digit growth. Sales climbed 12.3 per cent to £822m, and the firm now holds a record market share of 2.3 per cent, up from 2.1 per cent last year.

Why is the timing awkward for the new chief executive?

The sales decline coincides with a leadership handover. Allan Leighton, brought back to lead the turnaround, stepped back to a non-executive role last week with immediate effect. Former Morrisons boss David Potts joined as chief executive at the same point.

Potts set out his read on the business when his appointment was announced. "Asda has long been a great business, one I've admired and traded against over many years. The colleagues are remarkable, some of the most passionate I've met," he said. "The business has made good progress but significant opportunities remain and I'm delighted and very proud to have been asked by Allan to lead the team."

Leighton framed the appointment as a deliberate next step. "David has an outstanding record in our industry, his experience is exactly what we now require for the next stage of our transformation and beyond and it will be great to work with him," he said.

How much financial room does Asda have?

The constraint is debt. Asda, owned by private equity firm TDR Capital, has struggled to keep pace with the German discounters Aldi and Lidl while it battles to cut a £3bn debt pile.

The latest accounts quantify the pressure. Asda fell to a £989m pre-tax loss in 2025, though net debt fell by £500m to £3.1bn over the same period.

For Potts, the numbers set the agenda plainly: a chain losing share to a discounter growing at 6.6 per cent cannot fund price investment from a shrinking sales base. The 0.3 percentage-point share decline is small in isolation, but it reverses the one trend — the August return to growth — that suggested the turnaround had traction.

The next Worldpanel release will show whether August's uptick was noise or the start of something durable. On the evidence to 1 November, it was noise.