01 March 2024 , 11:37
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The billionaire co-owner of Asda has denied rumours of a family rift with his brother and business partner.
Mohsin Issa said he and Zuber Issa “get on exceptionally well. “We talk to each other probably two or three times a day,” he told the BBC. His comments follow rumoured tensions between the brothers after Mohsin split from his wife of 30 years. Mr Issa, 52, is now in a relationship with Victoria Price, a former tax partner at accountants EY. While Mohsin runs Asda, Zuber oversees forecourt giant EG Group, which is also part of the family empire.
In the BBC interview, he insisted: “There is absolutely no rift between myself and Zuber." He said there was no parting of the ways, adding: “We get on exceptionally well.”
The Blackburn-born brothers come from humble beginnings and started out with a garage which their dad, who had worked in a woollen mill, bought. They branched out on their own, first renting a petrol station for two years, then in 2001 buying their first forecourt, a derelict freehold site in Bury, and formed Euro Garages.
Their EG Group empire now has 6,300 sites across 10 countries. Together with private equity partners TDR Capital, the brothers bought Asda from US owners Walmart in a £6.8billion deal in October 2020. Asked if they hated being called the billionaire brothers, Mr Issa told the BBC: “It’s not a tag you want to be associated with, absolutely not. But I suppose that’s what people call it and I suppose it is what it is. We’ve not done bad to be honest. It surpassed our dreams and visions.”
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In a separate move, Asda announced it was spending £150million giving more than 120,000 staff an 8.4% pay rise. From July, pay rates will rise from £11.11 to £12.04, and from £12.28 to £13.21 for store staff inside the M25. Asda is the latest supermarket group to hike pay rates ahead of an increase in the national minimum wage in April.
Mohsin Issa said: “This record investment will see Asda become the highest-paying grocery retailer in the UK, recognising the hard work of our store colleagues in serving customers every day. We want to be a company that people are proud to work for, which is why we are proposing increasing pay for retail and Express colleagues by more than 8% this year.”