It wasn’t quite as dramatic as James Bond pushing the Queen out of a helicopter over the Olympic Park. But a startling cameo by Andy Bond in today’s Telegraph was still well worth a look.
The former Asda chief was being profiled from the saddle of his (very expensive) road bike, speaking as supremo of online cycling retailer Wiggle.
With business set to boom following Team GB’s dominance of the velodrome, Bond cut a more relaxed figure than he did at the end of his stint with Asda. That’s not to say that he hasn’t been paying attention to goings-on at his old stomping group.
He began by explaining why the old big four are collectively losing share. “That’s partly to do with the genuine appeal of the discount sector,” he said. “The big four aren’t providing the appeal they did and aren’t satisfying distressed consumers’ needs as much as they claim.”
That was just the warm-up. As well as offering his two pennyworth on Tesco, Amazon and Walmart, Bond went on to dismiss notions of a supermarket price war as fantasy.
“Look at whether profits are going up or going down,” he reasoned. “The claims of cutting prices are totally irrelevant if profits are going up. The reality is that there is no price war. There never has been a price war. They’re extremely efficient, so they can lower prices and raise profits, but that’s not a price war.”
It’s worth noting, of course, that Bond once described Asda’s Price Guarantee as the ultimate weapon that would put an end to supermarket price wars for good.
Now we find out there was never a conflict. It’s a bit of misdirection worthy of the other Bond.
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