Overbudget Project Future will continue to cause problems into Q2 next year, chairman admits

Asda's delayed tech divorce from Walmart, which involved a complete SAP ERP upgrade, has caused "severe disruption" hitting the UK retailer's quarterly revenue.

The UK's third-largest supermarket said the tech problems "materially impacted" its third-quarter trading, contributing to a 2.8 percent year-on-year fall in revenue to £5.1 billion.

Chairman Allan Leighton told the media that delays and disruption caused by the technology separation from previous owner Walmart, which ran back-office SAP systems, set back his financial turnaround by six months.

Despite technically completing the program dubbed Project Future in August, the retailer said the effects would continue until the second calendar quarter next year.

"The downturn in sales and to a degree the market share issue is totally driven by Future, it's not driven by any competitive activity," Leighton told The Times.

He said the IT issues were "totally self-inflicted" and put it down ...