Asda co-owner criticised after fuel price questioning
Asda co-owner Mohsin Issa has been criticised by the chair of a committee of MPs for “wasting” time and ignoring questions after being quizzed about fuel prices and employment practices.
Darren Jones MP described the hour-long hearing with Issa and Asda’s chief people officer Hayley Tatum as an “extraordinary session”.
“You’ve not answered any of our questions’, he added.
“I’m just very sorry that we’ve spent an hour going round in circles and you’ve not been complying with the questions from this committee.
“It’s not in order and I think actually you’ve suffered to the detriment for the brand of Asda to your customers and your suppliers.”
Issa, who owns Asda along with his brother Zuber, was called to the hearing to clarify apparent inconsistencies in his remarks to the committee last month.
He defended his supermarket’s fuel price strategy from a report by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which saw Asda fined £60,000 for “failing to provide information in a timely manner” regarding the investigation into fuel prices.
The report found that customers are now paying an extra six pence per litre of fuel as a result of increased supermarket fuel margins. It also revealed that Asda’s pence per litre fuel margin targets were three times higher than their 2019 levels by 2023.
However, Issa insisted that there had been no change to Asda’s fuel strategy since its purchase from Walmart in 2021, adding that the supermarket had invested the additional margin from fuel sales to invest in food and other essentials.
Issa – alongside Asda chief people and corporate affairs officer Hayley Tatum – was also questioned over business practices including so-called ‘fire-and-rehire’, which involves the threat of dismissal unless employees agree to a potentially weaker contract.
Tatum said the process – which she called ‘dismiss and reengage’, was a last resort.
Darren Jones said he reserved the right to recall both Mohsin Issa and Hayley Tatum to give further evidence in future.