Asda Replaces M&S As Biggest Retailer

Marks & Spencer has lost its long-held crown as Britain's biggest clothing retailer to Asda, the supermarket chain owned by Wal-Mart, the world's largest store group. According to confidential industry figures seen by the Telegraph, over the past three months George at Asda, the supermarket's own-brand clothing line famous for its GBP4 jeans, has overtaken M&S in terms of the volume of clothing it sells.

The revelation that M&S is no longer the UK's largest clothing retailer - a position it has held for decades - will be a blow to Stuart Rose, the retailer's new chief executive.

According to the latest FashionTrak survey, circulated to clients last week by Taylor Nelson Sofres, the leading retail market research organisation, Asda increased its share of the clothing and footwear market to 9.4 per cent for the 12 weeks to July 25, up from 7.3 per cent in the same period last year. By contrast, the M&S share remained static at 9.1 per cent. George was launched in 1990 by George Davies, the founder of Next, who is now the designer of M&S's own-brand Per Una range.

The emergence of George as the nation's biggest-volume clothes retailer is an historic coup for Asda. "For a very, very long time M&S was unchallenged at the top," said a former M&S executive. "George at Asda was the original 'quality at value price' retailer. It also has strong brand awareness. For a long time M&S had the same kind of brand reputation as George, but that has gone," said Rhys Williams, the retail analyst at Seymour Pierce. "It's going to take quite a long time for M&S to build that back up."

Bhs, Evans, Burtons and Top Shop, which are all owned by Green, also saw their shares of the volume market slip. However, sales volumes at his Dorothy Perkins and Top Man outlets either grew or held firm. M&S has retained the biggest market share in terms of value, but this is largely due to its higher prices.

George at Asda has an annual turnover of more than £1bn and is sold overseas in Wal-Mart stores in Germany, Korea, Japan, Mexico, Canada and the US. The brand has a chain of four standalone stores in the UK. A fifth opens tomorrow in Liverpool.