Sainsbury’s steps up price war with brand match roll-out

Sainsbury’s has fired the latest salvo in the intensifying price war among leading supermarket brands by announcing it is to extend its price-matching scheme across its UK stores from Wednesday (12 Oct).

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The supermarket’s “brand match” scheme follows recent moves by Tesco, Asda and Waitrose to reassure customers they will get equivalent prices for branded products to rivals, in a desperate bid to hang-on to market share.

Sainsbury’s scheme, which launched in Northern Ireland in August, compares the cost of branded products in a customer’s basket at the till, and prints off vouchers making up the difference if an equivalent Asda or Tesco basket is found to be cheaper.

The 1,300 brands included in the scheme include Hellmann’s Mayonnaise and Fairy Liquid, and customer must spend a minimum of £20 to be eligible.

Sainsbury’s revealed last week its sales on all stores open for more than a year had grown by 5.4% for the 16 weeks to 1 October, compared to the same period last year, while Tesco reported its first half year sales dropped by 0.5%.

Tesco retains its number one spot on market share, but its ability to grow that share has slowed in pace dramatically in recent months as has its closest rivals Asda and Sainsbury’s.

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