Blackfriar: Tough times will be facing the new supermarket men

Both have lost their highly regarded chief executives – Andy Bond from Asda and Marc Bolland from Morrisons.

The pair have steered their respective companies through the worst recession in living memory and produced like-for-like sales that have trounced their main rivals Tesco and Sainsbury's.

But now their new leaders – Dalton Philips at Bradford- based Morrisons and the yet to be named newcomer at Leeds-based Asda – will face a tough couple of years ahead.

The supermarket sector is about to come under real pressure as falling food inflation and slower sales growth hit profits.

Both will be looking to branch out into new areas.

This could include expansion into non-food and possibly expansion abroad for Morrisons.

At Asda it means a move into smaller supermarkets – although convenience stores have been ruled out – and a drive into non-food outlets.

Asda's US parent company Wal-Mart likes to hire from within and the two candidates favoured to get the top job are Asda's chief operating officer, rising star Andy Clarke, and its finance director Judith McKenna.

At the moment Clarke has the edge. Bond himself was chief operating officer before he took on the top job and many see Clarke as his natural successor.

But whoever gets the top job at Asda faces a difficult time ahead especially with the US masters at Wal-Mart demanding a bigger slice of the supermarket cake.

Tesco dwarves its rivals with a 30 per cent share of the market as opposed to number two Asda's 17 per cent.

Wal-Mart is used to dominating the markets it operates in and while Asda is a credible number two in the market, slightly ahead of Sainsbury's and well ahead of Morrisons, it is still only half the size of Tesco.

But Asda's prospects will be limited by the tight UK planning restrictions and a highly competitive market place. Whoever takes on the baton from Bond is in for a tough ride.

Earlier this year credit lender International Personal Finance saw its share price tumble on the news of a difficult first two months after heavy snow, especially in Poland, hit the business hard.

The severe weather meant that the group's agents were unable to visit customers at home.

But one month on the Leeds-based lender has come back fighting and expects to make up for the lost business over the coming months.

IPF believes that the worst is behind it and it expects to see strong growth in customers this year.

The group was disappointed that profits fell 19 per cent in 2009, but given the significant impact of the recession this was a credible performance at a time when many of the Eastern European banks have had to be bailed out by their Governments.

Yesterday the group was upbeat about its performance over the coming year after the group swung back into profit in the first quarter.

A return to normal trading in March and good weather in the first half of April meant the group produced a 2m pre-tax profit in the three and a half months to April 14.

This compares with an 8.5m loss in the first quarter last year.

The group's expansion plans include a major drive into Mexico, a market that has huge potential.

Once that is underway the group's next targets include India – another massive market – and possibly Bulgaria.

The beauty of IPF's model is there are so many more geographic areas for expansion.

With a steady and sensible management in place it should continue to do well.