Asda has reported a pre-tax loss of nearly £600m in 2024, despite an increase in total sales exceeding £1bn.
The supermarket giant, headquartered in Leeds, revealed a pre-tax loss of £599m for its most recent financial year, following a pre-tax profit of £180.3m in 2023, as reported by .
This profit in 2023 came after a pre-tax loss of £432m in the preceding 12 months.
Newly filed accounts with Companies House also indicate that its revenue rose from £25.6bn to £26.8bn over the same period.
However, excluding fuel, Asda's sales dropped from £21.9bn to £21.7bn.
When non-underlying costs, totalling £714.4m, are not taken into account, Asda achieved a pre-tax profit of £115.4m.
In 2023, the chain's non-underlying costs amounted to £68m.
Asda is primarily owned by TDR Capital, with billionaire Mohsin Issa holding a minority stake.
The supermarket giant stated that its operating profit before non-underlying items grew from £637m to £671m, "driven by an improvement in trading margins, disciplined cost management through the delivery of operational efficiencies" and the full-year consolidation of Asda Express (Jersey) and Arthur Foodstores.
Despite a year-on-year reduction in excluding fuel sales and investments into pay and hours, the company said this was achieved.
It further added that its operating loss, post-non-underlying items, included a net impairment charge of £378m and exceptional costs relating to its turnaround plan, Project Future, of £310m.
Asda has disclosed partial financial figures from March, indicating a 3.4 per cent decline in like-for-like sales year on year, with revenue slightly down by 0.8 per cent to £21.7bn.
At that time, the supermarket chain also shared that its adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) after rent rose by 5.8 per cent to £1.14bn.
However, Asda did not release full revenue and pre-tax loss details.
An Asda spokesperson commented: "Asda's core business remains strong and profitable, delivering a pre-tax profit of £115m before exceptional items."
"The reported overall loss is the result of two significant one-off costs: a £378m non-cash impairment charge, which reflects updated asset valuations, and £310m in one-time costs related to 'Project Future' – our strategic programme to separate Asda's IT systems from our former owner, Walmart."
"These are not recurring costs and do not reflect the underlying performance of the business."
"A more accurate indicator of our ongoing strength is our adjusted EBITDA after rent, which increased to £1.14bn from £1.078bn the previous year."
Asda 'making good progress'
Following these results, Asda's chairman stated in May that the company is "making good progress" despite a continued downturn in sales.
The retailer posted a revenue—excluding fuel—of £5bn for the three months leading up to 31 March 2025, marking the first quarter of its current fiscal year.
The total represents a 5.9 per cent decrease year-on-year, while its like-for-like sales, adjusted for Easter in the four months to the end of April, declined by 3.1 per cent.
Its market share has dropped from 15 per cent in 2021, when it was acquired by TDR Capital and the billionaire Issa brothers in a debt-fuelled takeover, to 12.1 per cent in May this year.
However, its three-month sales performance from March to May was the grocer's best for a year, according to Kantar.
Profit almost wiped out at billionaire’s empire
In June, City AM reported that profits at EG Group, the empire co-founded by a major investor in supermarket giant Asda, had almost been wiped out ahead of a planned $13bn float in New York.
The Blackburn-based group was established by brothers Mohsin and Zuber Issa and is now co-owned by private equity titan TDR Capital.
Accounts filed with Companies House revealed the group's pre-tax profit was cut from $1.4bn to just $10m in 2024.
EG Group stated that the change to its pre-tax profit was "largely driven by the material exceptional gain that the group reported following the divestment of the majority of the Ƶ business in October 2023 and the profit from the USA sale and leaseback transaction which completed in May 2023."
Before these exceptional items, the group made a pre-tax loss of $195m but it generated a profit of $205m from divestments.
In 2023, the group made a pre-tax loss of $125m before exceptional items which generated a profit of $1.5bn.
