LONDON (Reuters) – British lawmakers will next week question Mohsin Issa, the co-owner of British supermarket Asda, to clarify comments made by one of his lieutenants about the group’s fuel pricing strategy at an earlier hearing.
The lower house of parliament’s Business and Trade Committee said it was concerned about apparent discrepancies between statements made in evidence on June 27 by chief commercial officer, Kris Comerford, and the findings by Britain’s competition regulator in its market study of the supply of road fuel, published on July 3.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said UK drivers who bought fuel at supermarkets in 2022 paid around 6 pence per litre more than they would have done otherwise due to the traditional ‘big four’ supermarkets – Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda and Morrisons – increasing their margins.
The CMA blamed the weakening competition on a decision by Asda and Morrisons, the traditional price-leaders on fuel, to compete less hard so as to achieve higher margins, and a lack of competitive response to this by others.
However, Comerford told the committee Asda’s fuel pricing strategy had “not changed over many years”.
In a letter to the committee, Issa said Comerford had correctly stated Asda’s strategic position – to be the best value fuel retailer in the UK. He also said fuel and food should be considered as a single business, not separately as the committee had done.
The committee is also seeking clarification on Comerford’s denial that Asda is employing so-called fire and rehire tactics, which allows employers to change contract terms.
Sarah Cardell, the CMA’s chief executive, will appear before Issa to discuss details of its market study of the road fuel market.
(Reporting by James Davey; Editing by Josie Kao)
