Ahold has cut prices by up to 30% on more than 1,000 key products at its flagship Albert Heijn supermarket chain, in its home market in the Netherlands.

Ahold said the move was to regain lost market share after research found that shoppers thought the chain’s prices were too high. The move came as Ahold announced losses of €4.33bn under US accounting rules and warned that fraud probes would hit profits for 2003.