Asda was loaded up with too much buyout debt to take on the might of Tesco and Sainsbury's

Five months ago, the talk in supermarket-land was of price wars. A wounded Asda, with the corporate hero Allan Leighton back at the helm 25 years after leading the last turnaround, was out to restore its "DNA" as the price-setter among the traditional groups.

- Nils Pratley

A "pretty significant war chest" would be dedicated to the task, he promised. The group's owners - the private equity firm TDR Capital and the remaining Issa brother from the 2021 leveraged buyout - were prepared to suffer a "material reduction in our profit" in the coming year in order to get the sales line moving again. Even shares in the mighty Tesco shuddered in the face of this apparent sudden shift in competitive conditions.

So how's this price war going? Well, you'd struggle to tell it exists. Yesterday's scoreboard of market shares from the research group Worldpanel, formerly Kantar, told a familiar tale. Tesco and Sainsbury's, the two FTSE 100 firms, enjoyed a red-hot summer. Asda and Morrisons, the duo carrying heaps of buyout debt, did not.