Sainsbury’s is set to invest £550 million in a bid to take on Aldi and keep its prices down over the next two years.
The supermarket is battling against losing custom as consumers look for ways to trim expenditures amid growing costs.
This Christmas will be another tough one for numerous Brits in the cost of living crisis.
Bird flu has driven up the cost of fresh turkeys while food and soft drink inflation was running at a record-breaking 16.4 per cent last month.
This compares to the general rate of 10.7 per cent.
Sainsbury’s CEO Simon Roberts announced the supermarket’s £550 million investment in a message of hope for shoppers feeling the pinch.
It’s part of the retail giant’s plan to take on Aldi and become more competitive.
Mr Roberts told a newspaper outlet that it was really tough and that customers were watching every penny, every pound.
He said that on a lot of products that people purchase every week, they’re price matching to Aldi so they’re getting Sainsbury’s quality and an Aldi price.
The retail boss is prepared to accept a drop in profits in the short term in order to ensure Sainsbury’s remains competitive for shoppers.
From the £550 million investment, more than £15 million will go towards combating growing prices and keeping costs down over the festive period.
The meal includes turkey, pigs in blankets, potatoes, carrots, parsnips, cranberry sauce, Yorkshire puddings and Brussels sprouts with a sherry trifle for dessert.
Price matching to Aldi has been a fundamental part of Sainsbury’s focus and has been rolled out across hundreds of everyday items and customer favourites since the launch earlier this year.
Aldi took £170 million of sales from the former Big 4 this summer, before eventually overtaking Morrisons to become the UK’s fourth biggest supermarket.
Mr Roberts said there was no room for complacency but insisted that while the cost of living remained top of the agenda, for now, shoppers cared about more than just prices.
He said that they were seeing more customers coming back to them from the discounters. Emphasizing the limited range offered by discounters that couldn’t match that of a typical Sainsbury’s store with more than 30,000 food products, and he added, did people want to go to lots of places for what they needed or just one place because time was precious, and it wasn’t just about the money.
Sainsbury’s has always been dearer than its immediate competition.
They’re extremely pricey, and Morrison’s as well, which is a cheek considering how low quality their own brand goods are, and Sainsbury’s could never attain these lower prices unless they disassemble their business and put it back together again.
Sainsbury’s has a long way to go before they can match Aldi.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 