The Co-operative Group has launched £200 million worth of price cuts and promotions across its 3,000 UK stores as it looks to take on the ‘big four’ supermarket chains in the run-up to Christmas .
For the first time ,the retailer is offering holders of its dividend card triple points on selected products, equivalent to a 6p in the pound saving – three times more than Tesco’s Clubcard .
The Co-op dividend scheme has around four million members and is the only loyalty scheme that offers vouchers that can be substituted for cash in-store.
The scheme, which paid out £38.6m to Co-operative shoppers last year, will be open to Somerfield customers from today following the Co-op’s £1.6 billion acquisition of the supermarket chain earlier this year.
Co-operative chief executive Peter Marks said: “With rising fuel prices and financial pressures hitting household budgets this Christmas, customers are looking for a great deal locally.”
“The acquisition of Somerfield has enabled us to offer them our best value deals ever across thousands of products, and, for the first time, Somerfield customers will be able to benefit from the famous divi, too.”
According to the latest data from market research firm TNS, the Co-op, now the fifth-largest supermarket in Britain, increased sales excluding petrol year-on-year by 5.7 per cent from £1.08 million to £1.14 million in the 12 weeks to November.
