ASDA - comment

ASDA’s poor Christmas performance was trailed by Management at the Q3 results. The introduction of the new IT system caused significant falls in product availability at the beginning of the quarter. Sales normally rise (7% - 10%) between Q3 and Q4, but management said they would fall quarter-on-quarter as they would need to reduce prices to win customers back. The turnaround should start to show some results in Q2 this year (2 quarters longer than originally expected). The cost of the turnaround will likely rise as a result of the IT issues, and any gap will be met through layering existing Senior Secured debt via sale and lease-back transactions. 

https://www.ft.com/content/6ff6290e-0d04-44c7-87e1-93b17d063c29