New Asda boss makes first price cuts

LONDON (Reuters) - The new boss of Asda, the British supermarket arm of Wal-Mart (WMT.N), introduced his first wave of price cuts on Friday, seeking to reverse a dramatic slump in sales.

Last month Asda reported a 7.5 percent fall in underlying sales for its second quarter, prompting new Chief Executive Sean Clarke to caution it would take time for him to recover the firm's fortunes which have suffered due to the rapid rise of German discounters Aldi and Lidl.

On Friday Asda said prices had been cut by an average of 15 percent on thousands of own brand products, including fresh meat and fish, bread, cheese, tomato ketchup and wine.

The reductions form part of a commitment to price cuts of 1.5 billion pounds over five years which began in November 2013.

Asda's move comes days after industry No. 4 Morrisons (MRW.L) announced more reductions.

While Asda has lagged peers in sales performance for two years and lost market share, it has still been Britain's most profitable supermarket.

Accounts for 2015 filed to Companies House on Thursday showed it made a pretax profit of 633.2 million pounds ($840 million), up 5.2 percent, as it cuts costs, including jobs.

(Reporting by James Davey; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)