UK retailer Asda temporarily opted not to go ahead with its previously planned IT systems shift.

First reported by The Register, the company had intended to introduce new systems at its smaller stores and a few larger stores over the December 7-9 period as part of the separation of its technology from Walmart.

Asda
– Asda

Walmart sold Asda in February 2021 for £6.8 billion ($8.2 billion) to Mohsin Issa, Zuber Issa, and private equity firm TDR Capital. As part of that sale, Walmart agreed to support Asda's IT systems for a period of three years.

Asda is drawing to the end of that three-year transition period and the severance project (dubbed Project Future and covering everything from ERP to HR systems and more) had cost the retailer £430 million ($520 million) by the end of 2023.

The Register's report cited "internal communications" stating that the "SVP Forum" had decided to delay the transition.

Of the around 850 smaller store sites Asda operates, only a small fraction were part of the first planned roll-out that was delayed. Those involved underwent the system upgrades one week later than the originally planned dates.

According to a September statement from Asda, the company was "prioritizing the conversion of around 850 sites, including PFS sites, smaller supermarkets, and Asda Express convenience stores during the remainder of this year" and would be looking to transition its larger sites from January 2025.

DCD has reached out to see if this is still expected to be the case.

A spokesperson told The Register: "We are focusing on ensuring that any outstanding fixes are complete to ensure that we are not placing any additional pressure on our store teams when we transition to the new systems, and that when we move to larger scale rollout in the new year we are well positioned having had longer to work with the existing pilot stores and those sites which have already completed the transition."

Previously a part of Walmart, Asda has remained a customer of Microsoft. Walmart notably signed an agreement with Microsoft Azure in 2018. Asda moved off of Walmart's SAP ERP system to a new instance of S/4HANA hosted in the Microsoft Azure cloud in January 2024.

In 2022, Asda selected Veeam's Availability Suite for backup and restoration for its mission-critical services.