Insight Junction

By Kieran Kearey 28/12/25 4 min read

Welcome to business breakdown episode seven. This series is a longer version of my Instagram series “Business Breakdown In 60 Seconds”, where I provide information about a business, such as who their current CEO is, who founded the company, controversial news or general facts about the business, etc. But here on the blog, I will dive just a little bit deeper into each business.

As the title says, episode seven is about ASDA.

*This information is purely an objective view based on information taken from internet research*

Table Of Contents –

*Click on each heading to go to that section*

• What is ASDA?
• Current CEO
• Greenwashing Claims
• Equal-Pay Case
• Selling Illegal goods from illegal Israeli settlements
• Sources

What is ASDA?

ASDA is a grocery retailer that was founded in the 1960s in Yorkshire. 1965 was officially when ASDA was born, the name of which was derived from the names of Peter Asquith and “Dairies” (The word “dairies” is from the earlier acquisition and creation of dairy farms). Fast forward to 2024, ASDA opened its 1000th store, ASDA, TDR Capital, Global Data & I’m from Yorkshire.

Current CEO

At present, ASDA does not have a CEO, but is instead lead by an executive chairman (Allan Leighton), who started in ASDA as Group Marketing Director, but then was appointed Chief Executive in 1996. A couple of years later, Leighton left ASDA to work for other companies, and then returned as Executive Chairman of ASDA in 2024, Allan Leighton, ASDA.

Greenwashing Claims

Just a few years ago, ASDA was among a few companies accused of “greenwashing” and was consequently investigated by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). According to Greenpeace, greenwashing is a strategy used by a company to make the public think that they are sustainable or environmentally friendly, without having any meaningful reduction on their impact to the environment.

According to several sources (BBC, Sustainability Magazine, Morning Star and the UK GOV), the investigation was to find out or determine the following:

• whether language used by ASDA is too broad/vague regarding their “George for Good” collection, making it seem more sustainable than it actually is.
• whether criteria used by ASDA to determine what products to include in these ranges/collections are lower than customers’ reasonable expectations from the product/collection descriptions and presentation. An example UK GOV made was that some products contained as little as 20% recycled fabric.
• whether items have been included in the collections, despite not meeting criteria.
• whether there is enough information given to customers about products included in these ranges. An example from UK GOV was “such as missing information about what the fabric is made from.”.
• whether statements made by ASDA about fabric accreditation schemes and standards are misleading. An example from UK GOV was “such as a lack of clarity as to whether the accreditation applies to particular products or to the firm’s wider practices.”.

Equal-Pay Case

ASDA has been in a equal pay claim with over 60,000 employees since 2014 when the claim was first opened. The reason for this case is because employees argue that shop floor workers (who are mainly women) are paid less than warehouse workers (who are mainly men) despite having similar workloads and that their jobs are of equal value, and so should be paid the same under the Equal Pay Act 1970, The Guardian, Supreme Court, Leigh Day, GMB Union, CIPD. Information provided by GMB Union shows that the shop floor workers were/are supposedly being paid up to less than £3.74 per hour compared to the workhouse workers.

The next and final stage of the case is where ASDA have to show that there is a reason for difference in pay between these roles that is not based on sex, but the date of this is still to be arranged.

Selling Illegal goods from illegal Israeli settlements

Around October time last year, ASDA was threatened with legal action after being accused of selling products from illegal Israeli settlements located in West Bank Palestine, International Centre of Justice for Palestinians and Trades Union Congress (TUC). Furthermore, TUC suggested that the United Kingdom Government have been clear on their stance that settlements in West Bank are illegal. According to Corporate Watch (2009), ASDA sells the following products from Israel: “basil, tarragon, rosemary, sage, chives, dill, mint, thyme, passion fruit, mangoes, Blackfine plums, autumn red plums, medjoul dates, dragon fruit, pomegranates, avocados, organic sweet potatoes, sweet pointed peppers (red), sweet potatoes (“Georgia Jet”), frozen meat, biscuits, table wine (red, white, rose & sparkling), garden storage units and tinned grapefruit.”. Furthermore, Corporate Watch says that campaigners even found herbs stating they were specifically from West Bank Israeli settlements.

Something that shocked me while researching this topic is that people claim ASDA have been doing this since at least 2007, which is almost 20 years ago.

Sources

https://corporate.asda.com/our-story
https://www.tdrcapital.com/portfolio/asda/
https://www.globaldata.com/company-profile/asda-stores-ltd/
https://imfromyorkshire.uk.com/history-of-asda/
https://corporate.asda.com/allan-leighton#:~:text=In%20November%202000%2C%20Allan%20left,(Canada’s%20largest%20Food%20retailer).
https://corporate.asda.com/our-story/leadership
https://www.greenpeace.org.uk/news/what-is-greenwashing/?source=GA&subsource=GOFRNAOTGA01X3&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=19850865277&gbraid=0AAAAADmLluX3kmQhJGPzHohHFE8U8zTLY&gclid=Cj0KCQiApL7KBhC7ARIsAD2Xq3BzkW_1hlmhflWHf_tQY7rvReZOiNh7BMTOo0gvK4SgUaEojBXbN3caAmQqEALw_wcB
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-62344564
https://sustainabilitymag.com/sustainability/explainer-h-m-boohoo-asos-asda-greenwashing-accusations
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/boohoo-asos-and-asda-face-greenwashing-investigation
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/asos-boohoo-and-asda-investigated-over-fashion-green-claims
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/feb/03/thousands-asda-workers-win-latest-stage-equal-pay-case
https://supremecourt.uk/cases/uksc-2019-0039
https://www.leighday.co.uk/news/news/2025-news/asda-workers-advance-to-the-final-stage-of-their-equal-pay-battle/
https://www.gmb.org.uk/news/asda-equal-pay-ruling-sees-tens-of-thousands-of-women-workers-on-cusp-of-justice
https://www.hr-inform.co.uk/news-article/asda-staff-win-equal-pay-victory-in-supreme-court
https://www.icjpalestine.com/2024/10/30/8-national-supermarkets-threatened-with-legal-action-for-selling-illegal-goods-from-israeli-settlements/
https://www.tuc.org.uk/sites/default/files/extras/settlementsbriefing.pdf
https://corporatewatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Palestine_CW_report.pdf