Asda saw first quarter like-for-like sales drop by 2.8% excluding petrol, parent Wal-Mart Stores Inc (NYSE:WMT) revealed today.
Brett Biggs, Wal-Mart’s chief financial officer, said business was improving at the supermarket even so and overall sales had risen by 0.9%.
Allowing for a leap year and a late Easter there had been a sequential improvement in the underlying business, including customer traffic and prices he said.
“We're confident we're on the right track," he said.
Wal-Mart’s comparable sales rose 1.4% for the fiscal first quarter due to a 1.5% rise in foot traffic and booming online sales.
Asda is the UK’s third largest supermarket chain behind Tesco and Sainsbury’s.