Asda reportedly risks being forced to pay a multimillion-pound penalty if its £800m IT upgrade is delayed.

The upgrade, dubbed ‘Project Future’ has seen the supermarket attempting to transition from former majority owner Walmart’s legacy IT systems.

While the supermarket has introduced and updated thousands of checkouts, hardware installations and scan-and-go devices, any delays to a full transition could see it could facing a fine for continued use of Walmart’s technology, The Telegraph reported.

Sources close to the grocer have claimed this penalty could rapidly increase to millions of pounds.

An Asda employee told The Telegraph: “Everyone you talk to is saying that Asda is not going to meet the deadline. IT and Asda don’t mix.”

However, an Asda spokesperson said: “We continue to make good progress delivering Project Future and have successfully migrated large parts of our business to brand-new systems.

“We will continue to take a pragmatic approach when delivering the remainder of the programme and Walmart continues to be incredibly supportive in every way in helping with the implementation.”

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It comes after a series of issues with the transition from Walmart’s IT systems, including in March last year, when almost 10,000 Asda employees received incorrect payslips after an IT malfunction.

In July, a staff survey, which found that less than half of employees were confident in the supermarket’s strategy, as 48% did not see the benefits of ‘Project Future’.

In August, the grocer apologised to customers after thousands of George orders claimed to have been hit by an IT glitch the same month the clothing businesses online system had been upgraded amid the wider transition.

It comes as Asda chairman Allan Leighton has introduced a series of cost-cutting measures, including redundancies, as he warned of a long road ahead for the struggling supermarket.

The grocery giant revealed the axing of 13 regional managers as part of a senior shake-up, designed to increase performance and cut costs.