Former Jaguar Land Rover exec Stephen Prendergast joins Asda as Chief of Staff, Group CIO Office

UK grocery giant Asda has appointed Stephen Prendergast as Chief of Staff - Group CIO Office. His CV includes stints at Jaguar Land Rover (IT Director - Digital Transformation, Operations & Cyber Resilience) and Zopa Bank (IT Director).

In a LinkedIn post, he said: “Thrilled to share that I’ve joined Cal Corcoran (SVP, Group CIO Asda) and the team at Asda as Chief of Staff, Group CIO Office.”

He added: “After an incredible period of technology transformation, Asda is entering a new chapter focused on performance and operational excellence. I’m excited to help drive silent, stable and secure digital operations that enable growth, unlock new capabilities, and power exceptional customer experiences and value outcomes. Proud to be part of the journey ahead.”

Project Future

At the tail end of last year, Asda shared a Q3 2025 trading update, reporting total revenues (excluding fuel) of £5.1 billion and a 2.8% decline in like-for-like sales.  

It completed Project Future - one of Europe’s largest retail tech separations - which involved moving off more than 2,500 legacy Walmart systems and switching every part of Asda’s operations onto its own IT platforms. 

The changeover was complex and severely disrupted depot and store operations and the online shopping experience for customers, it admitted in its update.

Allan Leighton, Executive Chairman, said: “We said it would take three to five years to turn Asda around. We made good progress in the first half of the year against our ‘Formula for Growth’ with the best availability in eight years, a notable price gap versus competitors and a return to like-for-like growth."

“At Q2 results, we said that the cutover from Project Future, although completed, would likely have a negative impact on our performance. This change severely disrupted our systems and materially impacted our progress, as we saw a step back to inconsistent availability, operational issues at depot and in-store and a poor customer experience online and through the app that impacted our grocery home shopping business in particular.” 

“Since then, we have made good progress stabilising our platforms and the worst of the disruption is now behind us. Availability is back to where it was in June, operational issues are reducing and performance in recent weeks is improving, but we do not expect to re-establish our Q2 2025 position until Q2 of 2026. Thank you to all our colleagues for their hard work and commitment and our customers for their patience."  

2026 RTIH Innovation Awards

Grocery retail will be a key focus area at the 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards.

The awards are now open for entries and celebrate global retail technology innovation in a fast moving omnichannel world.

Our winners will be revealed at the 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards Ceremony, taking place at The HAC in Central London on Wednesday, 4th November.

Check out our 2025 winners here.

Our 2025 hall of fame entrants were revealed during a sold out event which took place at The HAC on 16th October and consisted of a drinks reception, three course meal, and awards ceremony presided over by award winning comedian, actress and writer Tiff Stevenson.

In his welcome speech, Scott Thompson, Founder and Editor, RTIH, said: “This is the awards’ fifth year as a physical event. We started off with just 30 people at the South Place Hotel not far from here, then moved to London Bridge Hotel, then The Barbican, and last year RIBA’s HQ in the West End.”

“But I’m conscious of the fact that, to quote the legend that is Taylor Swift, You’re only as hot as your last hit, baby. So, this year we’ve moved to our biggest venue yet, and also pulled in our largest number of entries to date and broken attendance records.”

He added: “This year’s submissions have without doubt been our best yet. To quote one of the judges: The examples of innovative developments across both traditional and digital retail spaces were truly remarkable.”

Congratulations to our winners, and a big thank you to our sponsors, judging panel, the legend that is Tiff Stevenson, and all those who attended our 2025 gathering.