Stalled steamroller

Wal-Mart may be pretty much invincible at home; but not overseas. It made a big mess of its German expansion in the late 1990s. Now it seems to be running into problems in Britain with Asda – which it bought for £6.7bn six years ago. Asda did very well under Wal-Mart’s wing for the first few years. In 2003 it overtook J Sainsbury as the second-largest supermarket group. But it has since lost momentum. In June this year its sales only grew by 1.5% according to TNS Superpanel – well behind Sainsb...