The Asda soap opera continues, with news this week that Allan ‘Mad Doc’ Leighton is going Back to the Future again with the appointment of another Asda veteran – legendary trading director Darren Blackhurst – as its new chief commercial officer.

To be fair, Leighton has never worked with Blackhurst, who joined Asda only 19 years ago – six years after Leighton’s departure. But it’s another intriguing appointment. Blackhurst is a very talented trader, whose ‘buy for less’ mantra served Asda well in an electric four-year spell under then CEO Andy Bond. If he can recreate the spark he brought to the role all those years ago, inspiring the trading team while chasing down every box, every shortage, every price point, it will be an achievement to match anything he’s done before.

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On the other hand, as we’ve seen, some of the trips in the Asda time machine have not worked out. And the Asda turnaround will take time too. Leighton himself has talked about a five- to seven-year timeframe. Will Blackhurst commit for that sort of period? Judging by his three-month long tenure covering the maternity leave of Morrisons chief customer officer Rachel Eyre last year, it seems a stretch. And in a further twist to the plot, he’ll be working alongside Eyre, who joined Asda last month.

The scale of the challenge has tested and evidently broken the resolve of the man Blackhurst will replace. Kris Comerford, Asda’s hard grafting, highly capable and hugely likeable chief commercial director, has faced into Asda’s difficult decoupling from Walmart, worked patiently with three different bosses, some clueless, some out of touch, all with different styles, and been lumbered with more and more responsibility: first grocery, then restaurants, convenience, petrol stations, manufacturing. In short it’s seemed for all the world like the Impossible Job. And perhaps it is. But at the same time it’s an experience that will surely stand Comerford in great stead.

In the fullness of time, when he’s ready, Comerford will not be short of offers and will inevitably make a comeback of his own. Good luck to both.

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