Asda owner to face committee over inflated fuel prices

The Commons business and trade committee has reportedly informed Asda owner Mohsin Issa about “apparent discrepancies” in the price of petrol fuel pricing at the supermarket chain and has asked the businessman to appear on 19 July, according to The Telegraph. The chairman of the committee, Darren Jones, said that MPs were also concerned about Asda’s ‘fire-and-rehire’ tactics, where an employer fires a worker and then offers a new, potentially less favourable contract. The news comes as Asda’s chief commercial officer Kris Comerford claimed on 27 June that the retailer’s fuel pricing had not changed “over many years”. However, on Monday (3 July) the CMA found that supermarkets, which have traditionally been known for cheaper fuel prices, had looked to raise profits by increasing their margins by 6p per litre on average between 2019 and 2022. As a result of this 6p hike, Asda, Morrisons, Tesco and Sainsbury’s were all found to have overcharged drivers by £900m in 2022, according to the CMA. The authority has singled Asda out for its ‘profit-per-litre’ target for 2023 being three times what it had been in 2019. In addition, the retailer was also served with a £60k fine for failing to provide pricing details in a timely manner to the regulator. While Comerford said in the meeting that was ‘not something that Asda employs,’ letters from Asda and the GMB union suggest this could be inaccurate. The GMB said Asda had issued the threat of using fire and rehire – characterised by the company as ‘dismiss and re-engage’ – as ‘a last resort’ in its own letter. Mohsin Issa said: “We have engaged fulsomely and openly with the business and trade select committee on grocery and fuel price inflation. We are disappointed to hear it feels there are discrepancies in our evidence and have provided them with a detailed response to their letter requesting a further interview. “In fuel, we remain resolute that our strategy is to offer the best value for customers at the pumps – something that the CMA’s fuel market study confirms we continue to be.” He added: “While we cannot answer questions about how the market operates as a whole, I am happy to use time that had been previously agreed for me to meet with Jones directly for an open discussion, where I will be happy to reaffirm our strategy and commitments.”