Wal-Mart denies Andy Bond put under pressure to resign from Asda top job

A senior Wal-Mart executive insisted that Andy Bond had not been put under pressure to quit as chief executive of its British subsidiary, Asda, as it announced ambitious growth targets for the Leeds-based supermarket, including overtaking Tesco as the country's biggest non-food retailer. The rumour mill went into overdrive on Monday when Asda announced out of the blue that Bond was stepping down as chief executive to become part-time chairman of Asda. Wal-Mart finance director Tom Schoewe, who flew in from Bentonville to speak at the event, said: "It was his [Bond's] decision. He decided it was time for a change." Despite his change of status, Bond set his replacement a series of big targets to hit over the next five years as he outlined growth plans to analysts that included extending non-food chain Asda Living from 25 to 150 stores and opening 100 small supermarkets. Asda was the worst performing of the major supermarkets over the Christmas period and recent market share data has shown it continuing to lose ground. As a result many had speculated Wal-Mart wanted to inject new blood into the business – even Bond himself said: "I am not happy with our sales performance." However, Schoewe was emphatic the decision was not an operational one: "That's wrong. Asda's results for 2010 were really good; actually that is an understatement, they were outstanding." Asda has promised to consider external candidates for the chief executive role though a member of the existing executive board is expected to be appointed. Internal candidates, including chief financial officer Judith McKenna and chief operating officer Andy Clarke were among the speakers at the conference for analysts and investors. Bond said that if the advisory new role worked out he would potentially "stay around a long time". "I wanted the chance to look outside and see what else I can do – I might spend another day a week cycling rather than working," he said. Bond also set the new Asda boss the challenge of overtaking Sainsbury's to become the "clear number two" in British food retail. Asda comes second to Tesco in the supermarket rankings only once other goods such as toiletries are taken into account and analysts said it was a tacit admission that it would never close the gap on Tesco. Bond had previously stuck to opening vast superstores of between 46,000 sq ft to 85,000 sq ft in size as they are more profitable than small outlets. But the grocer has now conceded that it will have to downsize to make any headway given the planning regime, announcing a target to open 100 small supermarkets of around 17,000 sq ft, up from 22 at present. Bond said it would also be an aggressive e-commerce player. To win back wavering customers Bond said it would hammer home its "every day low price" strategy this year as the sheer level promotions in stores meant they were "weapons of mass distraction" to shoppers. To cut prices it plans to save money by plugging into Wal-Mart's vast buying network via global sourcing hubs: Wal-Mart is the world's largest retailer, with annual sales of $405bn (£261bn).