Asda taps ex-Morrisons boss David Potts to lead turnaround

Why Asda is changing leaders now

Asda named former Morrisons chief David Potts as CEO, saying his experience is "exactly what we now require for the next stage of our transformation." He starts immediately. Allan Leighton, who has led the company since 2024 as Executive Chairman, moves to a non-executive chair role.

Potts's playbook

Potts began at Tesco and rose to run its UK stores as chief executive of that unit. He took the top job at Morrisons in 2015, steered it through Clayton Dubilier & Rice's 2021 takeover, and departed two years after that deal closed.

The backdrop: debt, IT headaches, and share losses

Asda is the UK's third-largest grocer, and it has gone five years without a full-time CEO while ceding ground to faster-moving rivals like Tesco, J Sainsbury, Aldi, and Lidl. The company was acquired in 2021 by the Issa brothers and TDR Capital in a highly leveraged buyout, and the resulting debt load has made a turnaround harder. Since 2024, TDR has held the majority stake.

Operationally, pressure also came from a botched IT revamp linked to its split from former owner Walmart. During the fiscal second quarter, like-for-like sales excluding fuel declined by 2.3%, the ninth drop in a row. According to Worldpanel by Numerator, market share is now 11.5%, compared with 14.3% at the start of 2021.

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