UK retailer Asda said it is “stone-cold certain” that it can do better after Kantar Worldpanel data revealed the group’s market share has dropped to a level not seen since November 2008.

Data published yesterday (22 June) showed that Asda has continued to underperform. Sales rose 2.7% but its market share dipped to 16.7%, compared to 16.8% in the prior year.

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Despite this, an Asda spokesperson told just-food today that it has been “very clear” that it always aims to out-perform the market and that it has a long track record of doing that.

However, he added: “Our market share since the turn of the year has clearly been below the high standards we set ourselves, but as recent like-for-like data from our competitors shows, there’s hardly anything between our performance and that of our rivals.

“That said, we don’t manage our business based on four-week market share numbers.  While we understand the appeal for commentators to try and extrapolate who’s up and who’s down based on that data, we’re at our best when we’re managing our business for long-term growth.”

The spokesperson added that the Kantar numbers show that the key driver of differences in Asda’s growth is the fact that it has opened less new space than competitors. 

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“In terms of our underlying performance, we’re all roughly in the same place. That said, we’re stone-cold certain that we can do better. We’ve been open about the fact that last year we got sucked into playing a promotional game that confused some of our shoppers,” the retailer insisted.