By James Davey, Muvija M

LONDON (Reuters) -Struggling British grocery store Asda stated on Saturday veteran retailer Allan Leighton would return as govt chairman, greater than twenty years after he served as CEO when he turned across the enterprise earlier than promoting it to Walmart (NYSE:).

Britain’s third largest grocer, now majority owned by personal fairness agency TDR Capital, has been dropping market share to rivals, together with business chief Tesco (OTC:) and No. 2 Sainsbury (LON:)’s, in keeping with month-to-month information.

Leighton will succeed fellow veteran Stuart Rose, who has been chair since 2021 and in September assumed the chief tasks of co-owner Mohsin Issa.

Earlier this month, Rose stated Asda had “slightly lost the plot”, highlighting insufficient retailer requirements, poor product availability and costs not as sharp as they’ve been prior to now. However he stated the enterprise is fixable.

On the similar time, Asda reported a 4.8% fall in third quarter like-for-like gross sales and warned that measures within the new Labour authorities’s finances final month would value the group 100 million kilos ($125 million).

Leighton served as Asda CEO from 1996 to 2001, driving a turnaround with then chairman Archie Norman earlier than the enterprise was bought to Walmart for six.7 billion kilos. Leighton additionally served as president of Canadian retail group Loblaw and chairman of Britain’s Co-op and the Royal Mail (LON:).

Asda stated Rose will stay on the board to make sure an orderly transition earlier than stepping down.

“I am delighted to be returning to the business which has always been a special place for me,” Leighton stated.

Gary Lindsay (NYSE:), managing accomplice of TDR Capital, stated Leighton’s “experience and understanding of Asda will stand us in good stead as he leads the business into the next stage of its development”.

Walmart retains a ten% stake in Asda.

($1 = 0.7980 kilos)