After announcing a price freeze on certain products in early June, Asda announced new price cuts on 425 branded and own-label products including fish fingers.
The third-largest U.K. supermarket chain said it is investing GBP 23 million (USD 29 million, EUR 27 million) to lower prices by an average of 11 percent on some of the most-popular products its customers buy weekly, including nappies, infant follow-on milk, bread, cheese, cereals, pasta, fish fingers, sausages, and chicken breasts.
Among the seafood products getting a price cut is Asda 30 Omega-3 Fish Fingers, which saw its price cut from GBP 4.50 (USD 5.68, EUR 5.25) for a 900-gram package to GBP 3.70 (USD 4.67, EUR 4.32).
Despite inflation easing in the U.K. from 7.9 percent in June to 6.8 percent in July, family disposable incomes remain much lower than before the country’s cost-of-living crisis began in the waning days of the Covid pandemic, Asda said in a press release, falling by over GBP 100 (USD 126, EUR 117) per month for the average household compared to July 2021.
“While the headline inflation rate may have eased slightly last month, our own data tells us that many customers are continuing to struggle with rising living costs,” Asda Chief Commercial Officer Kris Comerford said. "We have targeted this latest price investment on the products that our customers buy week in and week out, to help their shopping budgets stretch further.”
In early June, Asda also froze prices on more than 500 products, mainly “cupboard essentials” including cereals, pasta, and tea; and “summer favorites” including salads, burgers, and ice cream. Also in June, Waitrose, the eighth-largest grocery chain in the country, cut prices on 200 items “in every aisle,” including sugar, sausage, salads, and ice cream.
Asda said it is continuing to work closely with its suppliers and will pass on commodity price savings to customers whenever there is an opportunity, Comerford said.
Tesco is another retailer calling on its suppliers to lower prices so it can pass savings on to shoppers, executives said in a recent presentation, per The Guardian. The grocery chain said the market is moving from “inflation to deflation,” and it wants to get out in front of rival supermarkets by cutting prices more aggressively. Tesco initiated a review of its entire fresh and packaged food lineup in June 2023.
Poundland, Marks and Spencer, Morrisons, and other U.K. grocers initially began cutting prices on selected groceries in November 2022.
Photo courtesy of Asda
