Reeves' budget is 'big burden for retail industry to carry', says Asda chair

Chancellor Rachel Reeves's budget is expected to prove to be “a big burden for the retail industry to carry”, Asda chair Stuart Rose has said, warning that the “consequences” of the budget will lead to some price increases.

Rose said the increase in employers’ NICs and changes to tax thresholds would have “consequences” and meant it could not rule out some price increases.

“If you get presented with a bill unexpectedly for around £100m, even if you’re a business as big as us, that takes some digestion. So, we’re looking at the consequences of that, but you cannot rule out the fact there will be some inflation,” Lord Rose told the Guardian.

Rose added that the changes in last week’s budget were “a big burden for the retail industry to carry” and meant that Asda would “have to look hard at every piece of expenditure”, including the annual pay increase for staff, and may limit how many workers it hires.

“We’ve seen an increase in national minimum wage,” he added. “We want to attract good staff, but we have to look very, very hard to affordability.”

It comes a day after Asda released its gloomy numbers the slide in total revenues, excluding fuel, by 2.5 per cent to £5.3bn in the three months to the end of September, while like-for-like sales were 4.8 per cent lower than the same quarter in 2023.

Asda’s warning about the cost of budget measures comes only days after it announced hundreds of head office job cuts and a restructuring in an attempt to turn around the business.

The retailer said it would slash 475 management roles in Leeds and Leicestershire to “remove duplication and simplify structures” amid a “challenging” market. The remaining staff have also been told they will be required to spend at least three days a week in the office from January.

“We are a business that relies on teams working together. It’s not always as efficient with those teams working together in terms of online, in terms of Zoom calls," Rose said.

Asda has been without a chief executive since the co-owner Mohsin Issa stepped back from executive duties in September, leaving the retail veteran Rose in the lead role.

Rose, who had previously called on Issa to step back, said he was “embarrassed” by Asda’s performance.

“I’d like to see the business flying again, so I stick by what I said,” Rose said. “We’re in here now with our heads together, we’ve got a good management team.”