Debt, IT woes and no chief executive What returning Asda boss has in store

Allan Leighton faces a back-to-thefuture challenge as he once again takes charge at struggling Asda.

- Sarah Butler

Two decades on from his first spell turning around the supermarket chain, he has been appointed as its executive chair, tasked with repeating the feat.

When Leighton, 71, left Asda in 2000 it was a scrappy challenger to Tesco and Sainsbury's and he had just revived the chain and engineered a sale to Walmart for more than £6bn. Now, it is a lumbering incumbent with 580 supermarkets plus more than 500 convenience stores and risks losing third-largest its spot as the UK's grocer to a new generation of cheaper discount rivals and small high street stores.

The first time around, Leighton helped save Asda from collapse with the then chair Archie Norman, now chair of Marks & Spencer. Here is what is in Leighton's in-tray as he tries to get the troubled business back on track once more.

Finding a chief executive

Leighton's first job will be finding a retail expert to tackle the business basics that have gone awry since the £6.8bn takeover in early 2021 by Blackburn's billionaire Issa brothers and the private equity firm TDR Capital.