Key facts
- Asda appointed David Potts as chief executive with immediate effect, the company said.
- Potts, 69, was chief executive of Morrisons from 2015 to 2023 and spent decades at Tesco.
- Allan Leighton, 73, who ran Asda since 2024, moves to a non-executive role on strategy.
- Asda's sales fell 0.5% in the three months to October 4, per Worldpanel by Numerator.
- Aldi is about one percentage point from overtaking Asda as the UK's third-largest supermarket, the report said.
Asda appointed David Potts, the former chief executive of rival grocer Morrisons, as its chief executive with immediate effect, the UK's third-largest supermarket chain said in a report that gave the day but not the date of the announcement.
The company said executive chair Allan Leighton, who had been running the business since 2024, would step back to a non-executive role focused on what it called the long-term strategic agenda for the business. The appointment followed a long search for a chief executive and came as a surprise, the report said, because Leighton had indicated he expected to fill the role with an internal candidate.
Potts began his career on the shop floor at Tesco aged 16 and worked there for decades, eventually heading its UK business, before serving as Morrisons chief executive between 2015 and 2023. He left after Morrisons was taken private by US investment house Clayton, Dubilier & Rice in 2021.
The leadership change comes as Asda and Morrisons face heavy competition and high levels of debt. Aldi is poised to overtake Asda as the UK's third-largest supermarket, with about one percentage point separating them, the report said. Asda's sales fell 0.5% in the three months to October 4, according to figures from market research group Worldpanel by Numerator, despite efforts to trim prices and improve ranges and stock availability.
Leighton said he was really excited to appoint Potts. "Over the last two years, we have stabilised the business and returned it to some growth and begun to establish Asda as 'more than a supermarket' through our Formula for Growth strategy," he said, adding that Potts' experience was what the company now required for the next stage of its transformation.
Potts said Asda had long been a great business that he had admired and traded against over many years. "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," he said. He said the company would revitalise the business by improving the shopping trip every week, with benefits for its 116,296 colleagues, and said Asda had a clear focus on keeping prices locked low over Christmas.