Mohsin Issa steps down as Asda chief executive

Mohsin Issa has resigned as Asda chairman and will be replaced by the company’s chairman, Lord Stuart Rose.

While Rose takes on the day-to-day running of Asda, Issa remains a minority co-owner and a non-executive board member but will concentrate on his petrol station forecourts business, EG Group.

Rose, who was executive chairman of Marks & Spencer until 2010 and chairman until 2011, said last August that he was “embarrassed” by Asda’s underperformance and called on Issa to resign.

Asda’s sales fell by 5.5 per cent over the past twelve months and the chain’s market share has dropped from 13.1 per cent to 11.8 per cent.

“We respect Mohsin’s decision to move on from his role at Asda, where his work is complete, to be the sole CEO of EG Group,” Rose said on September 18.

“He has laid the foundations to deliver a world-class IT infrastructure, strengthening Asda for the long term.”

According to the Telegraph earlier this year, Asda was prepared to pay a new, topflight chief executive between £8 million (€9.5 million) and £10 million (€11.9 million).

At the time, this had failed to lure candidates, presumably owing to Issa’s continued involvement in the supermarket chain.