Home Pride is aiming to clean up against a key rival - by undercutting its price on a key market innovation.
The manufacturer is adding Erase Away to its line-up, an instant household stain removing pad that it says is all but identical to Procter & Gamble’s Flash Mark and Stain Eraser. However, although Erase Away uses, in the company’s words, “exactly the same technology as Flash”, it promises to beat it by up to 25% on price and says it is 25% bigger.
A two-pack of Home Pride’s version will carry an rsp of £1.49 compared with Flash’s £1.99 recommended price. And an Erase Away four-pack will cost £2.79 - 70p less than P& G’s asking price for the same number of the Flash product.
Erase Away is set to go into “a major multiple” next month and Home Pride MD Matt Stockdale said the product, which like its Flash counterpart wears down through use, had been on the drawing board for months.
He claimed he had been surprised when the Flash product beat his to market but insisted P&G had saved his company “a small fortune by creating the market for us, not just in terms of educating the consumer but buyers as well”.
P&G is supporting the Flash version with a £1.5m campaign, including a TV ad.
Stockdale added: “Erase Away is exactly the same product as Flash and consumers will realise they are paying more just for the Flash name.”
A spokesman for P&G declined to comment.