Supermarket giant Tesco has announced it will cut the price on more than 400 products by 50 per cent over the next two months as it sets its sights on waging a price war with German discount food retailers Aldi and Lidl.
The new initiative is the first major sign that the discounters’ growing popularity is starting to worry bosses at Tesco .
The retailer will now look to strengthen its price checking programme and introduce more own label products aimed at matching Aldi and Lidl’s prices on over 2,000 product lines.
Tesco has also launched 300 new Lidl-style products, with 200 items expected to soon follow, in a move designed to emulate the no-frills European feel of the German discounters.
Tesco’s commercial director Richard Brasher said: “As other discount stores expand into the UK and canny customers seek ever-lower prices we cannot afford to be complacent.”
“We want to make sure that our customers don’t start the New Year worrying about how to balance the budget . The best way Tesco can help customers is to work as hard as ever to keep the cost of their weekly shop as low as possible.”
Aldi and Lidl, best known for selling a limited range of low-priced products from sparse stores, have slowly become a favourite amongst more middle-class and upmarket supermarket shoppers due to their discount prices.
Tesco, the UK’s largest supermarket chain with a 30 per cent UK market share, has traditionally focused its attention on the pricing actions of its three main domestic rivals – Asda, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons .
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