Asda will pay thank-you bonuses to thousands of salaried employees at the end of March despite elements of its turnaround plan falling short of internal targets, industry reporting shows. According to The Telegraph, summarised by trade outlets, around 9,500 staff including head office employees and senior leaders are eligible for the payment.

The supermarket’s chairman, Allan Leighton, said the bonus applies to all colleagues who began working for the business before October 2025 and is intended to acknowledge their “hard work throughout the year”. An Asda spokesman added: “In recognition of all the hard work undertaken during the first year of our turnaround, we have today confirmed that all eligible salaried colleagues will receive a thank you bonus in their March pay. This has been well received.”

The internal memo reportedly makes clear that while some teams met the required measures and will receive full awards, others missed benchmarks and will be paid a reduced amount, with those not meeting targets receiving roughly a quarter of the extra pay. Leighton acknowledged that “not all metrics were fully achieved” while urging recognition of progress made.

The bonus move comes against a wider backdrop of substantial pay investment at Asda in recent years. The company has announced multi‑phase increases to hourly rates for store colleagues and other pay packages, with previous communications stating hundreds of millions of pounds have been committed to raising retail pay since the business changed ownership. Industry coverage notes phased uplifts for store staff and enhanced family-friendly policies introduced alongside pay rises.

That record of investment has not been without controversy. An internal review disclosed earlier this year found a payroll error linked to a major IT overhaul that left more than 50,000 current and former colleagues underpaid for holiday and sickness pay over a 15‑month period; the retailer has said it will fully repay affected workers with interest. Such episodes have increased scrutiny of the company’s internal controls even as it pushes through operational change.

Separately, MPs and campaigners have probed Asda’s links to third‑party financial services offered to staff, including an app that provides wage advances and workplace loans. Concerns raised to parliamentarians have focused on whether workers are being exposed to high‑cost lending and whether those commercial ties were sufficiently disclosed when services were rolled out. Asda has told MPs it carries out affordability checks and that only a small proportion of colleagues have taken loans.

Company statements characterise the thank-you payments as recognition for colleagues’ efforts during a challenging year while accepting some objectives were missed. The decision to pay across a wide group of salaried staff, including leadership, will be watched by unions, MPs and investors as part of the broader assessment of Asda’s turnaround and workforce relations.