Asda to invest £300m in price cuts

Leeds-based Asda said it will invest £300m in the first quarter of 2015 on reducing prices across thousands of customer favourites including weekly essentials and big brands.

The price cuts form part of the supermarket’s five-year strategy to invest £1bn in lowering prices and £250m in quality.

Asda is lowering the price of 2,500 household favourites in a bid to widen the gap with the other big three supermarkets and close the gap with the discounters.

The price cuts will be focused on basket essentials such as fruit, vegetables, cereals, nappies, loo roll, milk, eggs, meat and fish, as well as big brands

Barry Williams, chief merchandising officer for food at Asda, said: “After a great Christmas with the family, January is the month we all start looking at the size of our waists and our wallets.

“We invest in price year round but we’re kicking off January with our biggest ever rollback – spending £300m to bring more value across our stores and online on the products customers buy week in, week out. We’re going further than ever before, rolling back those every day, can’t live without items at a bigger percentage than we’ve ever been able to do previously.

“With hundreds of products at 50p, and even more at 15 per cent less than normal, we’re aiming to make a big difference for families in their weekly shop.”

More than 150 cleaning products will also be rolled back as shoppers clean up after Christmas and try to get their house back to normal. Products like Dettol antibacterial wipes will be rolled back to £1, Fairy washing up liquid to £1 and Bold Liquitabs to £3 from £6.