With the multiples fighting for victory, and Whole Foods Market making its mark, quality and local sourcing may outweigh price

Performances from the major grocers over the past year have been strong - aided to some extent by the dramatic decline in Kwik Save's fortunes.

Over the next few months, the top four will return to the old battlegrounds of price and quality. And the big question is to what extent the outcome will be influenced by two players outside the top four who are very much playing the quality card.

Three of the big four have already fired the opening salvos in the next phase of the supermarket wars and on the face of it, the message would seem to be all about price.

First came Asda's announced price cuts worth £250m across 10,000 products. Then Tesco upped the ante with its promise of £270m price cuts on more than 3,000 products. Morrisons soon followed suit, only Sainsbury's, Somerfield and Waitrose refused to be drawn into a full-scale price war.

The interesting player here is Sainsbury's, which in staying out reinforced the fact that its recovery is based on quality and availability rather than on price. Like Waitrose, it has been making a big play of its ethical credentials - its coup de grâce arguably its tie- up with bag designer Anya Hindmarch on I'm NOT a plastic bag.

But it is Waitrose, which this week unveiled a major revamp at its Marylebone store, and Whole Foods Market, which opened its flagship UK store in Kensington earlier this month, that are really influencing the quality versus price debate.

Experts have already warned that farm shops and traditional delis could be forced out of business following Waitrose's revamp, which has seen the introduction of more fresh and locally stocked produce and will be rolled out to the rest of the estate if successful. And I've talked before about the significance of Whole Foods' new store with its focus on fresh, locally sourced products.

In short, quality is becoming an increasingly important message. But although the market is superficially polarising, Tesco, Asda and Morrisons pushing the price message and Sainsbury's, Waitrose and Whole Foods the quality message, the reality is that the battle will be waged on both fronts.

The winners will be businesses that improve their offer at prices everyone can afford. Whole Foods' range and presentation at Aldi prices. Is that too much to expect? n

Former Safeway director Jack Sinclair is develop­ment director at SB Capital Group and director of McCurrach