Supermarket Asda has blamed fierce competition in the grocery sector for a seventh consecutive quarter of falling sales. In the 13 weeks to the end of March, the supermarket saw a 5.7% drop in sales, worse than anticipated by experts at Kantar, as well as a 5% drop in customer numbers.

“The UK continues to struggle, due primarily to fierce competition,” said Walmart’s chief financial officer, Brett Biggs. “Improvements in price and product availability throughout the quarter were not enough to overcome traffic and food volume declines in our large format stores.”

Asda chief executive Andy Clarke has launched “project renewal”, a turnaround plan that will “simplify and strengthen the customer offer, reduce costs and drive sales”.