Asda is set to invest an additional £13m in store hours during the festive period following a decline in third quarter sales.

For the quarter ending 30 September, the supermarket giant’s sales, excluding fuel, slipped 2.5% to £5.3bn, with like-for-like sales down 4.8%. However, this was an improvement on the previous quarter this financial year.

Asda said its key priorities – improving availability, enhancing the customer experience and investing in value – which were outlined in its second quarter update, are “already making a difference” as customer perceptions of availability are “improving noticeably” in stores and online.

However, to drive further improvements, the grocer is investing an additional £13m in store hours over the Golden Quarter to ensure more colleagues are on hand to support customers during the busy festive period.

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Asda chairman Stuart Rose said: “We have undergone the largest transformation in our history during the last three years – doubling our store footprint, expanding into the strategically important growth markets of convenience and food-to-go, and overhauling our digital capabilities.

“We have laid solid foundations to drive long term growth, but the unprecedented scale of these changes has absorbed a huge amount of the leadership’s time with a temporary impact on Asda’s customer experience in stores.

“Now it is time to deliver the best possible experience in our stores day-in-day out – and pull out all the stops for customers this Christmas and beyond. I would like to sincerely thank all our colleagues for their hard work and ongoing dedication.”

A key focus of Asda’s value proposition is its Rewards loyalty app, which now accounts for almost 57% of all transactions and has more than 6.8m regular users since launching in August 2022.

Its recently launched ‘Rewards Mega Weekend Deals’ has helped to attract more than 300k new customers and increase weekly sales participation by 1.2%.

The retailer also continues to invest in its quality credentials and has doubled the size of its new premium Exceptional range which launched earlier this year.

More than 400 new Exceptional lines have been rolled out recently across several categories including meat, fish, poultry and bakery, and initial sales of the range are up 98% year on year.

Asda chief financial officer Michael Gleeson added: “We are taking clear steps to improve store standards and deliver a more consistent experience for customers in whichever format they choose to shop with us.

“These plans are bearing fruit with customer perceptions improving, a continued market outperformance from our George fashion brand and a strong response from customers to the quality and value of the new Exceptional premium lines. While these steps have already started to make a difference, we recognise that more work is required to deliver sustained sales growth.”