© Reuters. A woman pushes a shopping cart at an Asda superstore at the Gateshead Metrocentre, following the UK Supreme Court judgment on equal pay claims case, in Gateshead, Britain, March 26, 2021. REUTERS/Lee Smith/File Photo
LONDON (Reuters) -Asda, Britain’s third largest supermarket group, said it would price match discounters Aldi and Lidl on hundreds of comparable grocery products, following bigger rivals Tesco (LON:) and Sainsbury’s who have schemes that match Aldi’s prices.
Asda, owned by brothers Zuber and Mohsin Issa and private equity group TDR Capital, said on Friday it has reduced the prices of 287 products, including milk, bread, cheese, fresh meat and fresh fruit and vegetables, by an average of 17% to match whichever discounter has the lowest price.
The new addition to Asda’s pricing strategy comes after it underperformed rivals in 2023 and was a relative laggard over the key Christmas period, according to industry data.
Data from market researcher Kantar published on Wednesday showed Asda’s sales rose 3.4% in the 12 weeks to Dec. 24 year-on-year, while market leader Tesco and No. 2 Sainsbury’s had growth of 7.5% and 9.3% respectively.
Tesco and Sainsbury’s have credited their Aldi price matching schemes for stemming the flow of shoppers to the discounters.
Asda’s latest price cuts and reductions on 1,700 products announced by Ocado (LON:) Retail on Thursday, add to the UK’s brighter outlook for food inflation.
Kantar said on Wednesday grocery inflation slowed to 6.7% in December from 9.1% in November, the fastest month-on-month drop that the researcher has recorded and its lowest level since April 2022.
