Allan Leighton faces a back to the future challenge as he once again takes charge at struggling Asda. Two decades on from his first spell turning around the supermarket chain, he has been appointed as its executive chair, tasked with repeating the feat.
When Leighton, 71, left Asda in 2000 it was a scrappy challenger to Tesco and Sainsbury’s and he had just revived the chain and engineered a sale to Walmart for more than £6bn. Now, it is a lumbering incumbent with 580 supermarkets plus more than 500 convenience stores and risks losing its spot as the UK’s third-largest grocer to a new generation of cheaper discount rivals and small high street stores.
