The co-owners of supermarket chain Asda have defended itself over a range of attacks from MPs on the way the business is run.
TDR Capital, the private equity group which co-owns Asda with billionaire brothers Mohsin and Zuber Issa, was probed by MPs during a Business and Trade Committee session in Parliament. It insisted the grocery chain did not intend to make a bigger profit on fuel prices, after an investigation last year found it had bumped up fuel margins during the cost-of-living crisis, and also rejected criticism that there are gaps in the company's finances.
In the committee meeting, Conservative MP Jonathan Gullis said Leeds-based Asda was found by the UK competition watchdog to be “one of the leaders in bumping up the price” of fuel, leading competitors to do the same and meaning people were being “ripped off at the pump”.
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Gary Lindsay, the managing director of TDR, said: “There wasn’t a particular strategy to bump the price of fuel or to make a larger profit on fuel.” And he shrugged off the “notion that we were moving profit around between fuel and food”, insisting: “We are incredibly competitive when it comes to price across the business.”
The remarks were in relation to a probe by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) which last year found that Asda’s fuel margin target was more than three times their 2019 level by 2023, after it looked into concerns over profiteering on fuel. Asda also deliberately passed on reductions to retail prices more slowly in areas where they had no competition, it found.
Asda last year said it had started displaying live fuel prices online, following pressure from the watchdog and the Government. Meanwhile, Asda bosses were questioned over its use of holding companies based in Jersey, and whether it creates “major distrust” between Asda staff and management.
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Mr Lindsay said: “For the record, there is no hole in the accounts, it is purely accounting standards which can be confusing.” Emma Gilks, deputy general counsel for TDR, said: “I do understand that to see a number of companies and to see them located in certain areas raises some question, but I want to be extremely clear with the committee that Asda is extremely transparent.”
Labour MP Liam Byrne responded that it is “rather stretching” to describe the company as “extremely transparent”.