Sainsbury’s apes Tesco with launch of Aldi Price Match campaign

Sainsbury’s is taking on Aldi as it opens a new front in the supermarket price war.

The supermarket has today launched Aldi Price Match, having reduced the price of around 250 staple grocery products.

The price-matching campaign has the same name and similar branding as one launched by Tesco last March.

The scheme includes products across the meat & fish, dairy, frozen, fruit & veg, bakery, drinks, food cupboard and toiletries categories. It said prices were matched against equivalent products at the discounter. They do not take into account Aldi’s promotions and in some cases prices have been pro-rated to reflect different pack sizes and product weights. 

Reductions include cutting the price of By Sainsbury’s plain flour 1.5kg from 80p to 45p and By Sainsbury’s 2 Smoked Basa Fillets 240g from £2.50 to £2.39.

Sainsbury’s said the launch was the first major strategy move under CEO Simon Roberts’ ‘food first’ plan to put food back at the heart of the business.

“We are making great progress delivering our food first plan and I’m determined that in these tough times, we do even more to help our customers save money,” he said.

“Our new commitment to match Aldi prices on hundreds of our most popular products will mean our customers can be confident that they are getting the quality they expect from Sainsbury’s at great prices.”

Sainsbury’s said the move would further strengthen its value credentials and sit alongside its current Price Lock scheme, which involves the reduction of prices of around 2,500 branded and own-label items for an eight-week period.

Aldi pointed to a Grocer 33 comparison in December that found it to be 20% cheaper than Sainsbury’s. A basket of 33 products came to £48.23 at Aldi compared with £60.54 for an equivalent shop at Sainsbury’s.

It said the price difference was so great that Sainsbury’s campaign lacked credibility.

The discounter was this morning examining the comparisons, and said it would discount as necessary to maintain its price margin over any competitor on comparable products.