Asda said to be set to poach top executive from Sainsbury’s

Supermarket Asda WMT.N , the British arm of Wal-Mart WMT.N , said on Tuesday it had appointed Roger Burnley, now the retail and operations director of rival Sainsbury’s SBRY.L , to be its new chief operating officer.

They were also colleagues at Matalan, having moved over to the budget retail chain at the same time from Asda in 2002.

Analysts immediately speculated that Burnley’s move will make him a prime contender to succeed Clarke.

Results earlier this month showed that Asda has weathered the supermarket price war better than its rivals, with the US-owned group smashing the £1billion profit barrier for the first time past year.

In a clear sign that Mr Burnley is tipped to take on the top job, Mr Clarke said: “Adding Roger to Asda’s executive team further strengthens the board which, I believe, is now one of the most experienced and capable in the industry”.

“These are times of unprecedented turbulence for our industry”, he said.

Burnley’s appointment will come just weeks after Asda reported its worst-ever quarterly performance, with sales from stores open for at least a year down 4.7% in the 11 weeks to June 30.

Mr Burnley will not be able to join Asda until next year as Sainsbury’s is a direct competitor to Asda.

‘He leaves Sainsbury’s retail and operations teams in excellent shape, along with our best wishes for the future’.

Instead, Mr Coupe will now face the challenge of additional responsibilities as the grocer enters the busy Christmas trading period while he takes on Mr Burnley’s role on an interim basis.

Sainsbury’s chief executive Mike Coupe said: “I would like to thank Roger for his significant contribution to Sainsbury’s over the last decade”.

Sainsbury’s said that it had started the search for Mr Burnley’s replacement and that the strategy for Christmas was already in hand.

Shares in Sainsbury’s were down 1.9 percent at 266 pence at 1128 BST.