Morrisons is cutting prices for the second time this year, further intensifying an ongoing battle in the British supermarket industry.
The UK’s fourth-largest grocer is cutting prices by as much as a third across 200 everyday items. A pack of eggs will be 11 per cent cheaper, and Morrisons has reduced the cost of a bag of sugar by 25 per cent.
“We want to be the best-value retailer, offering customers the best price for good-quality British products,” chief executive officer Dave Potts said in a statement Sunday.
Potts, at the helm since March, is seeking to sustain a recent upturn in growth, after an 18-month sales slump that cost his predecessor, Dalton Philips, his job. All four of the UK’s largest supermarkets have put lower prices at the heart of their efforts to stop more customers defecting to discount retailers Aldi and Lidl.
Morrisons' price cuts are unlikely to be the last. Dave Lewis, CEO of market-leader Tesco, said in April that he is prepared to continue investing money to win back customers, even if it means accepting lower profitability in the near term.
In May last year, Morrisons cut prices across 1,200 products, which was followed up by reductions to 100 products in February. The moves have contributed to record food-price deflation that reached 1.9 per cent last month, researcher Kantar has said.
Bloomberg News, edited by ESM
