Battle of the supermarket brands: M&S announces price cuts of 70 ‘family staples’ including avocados and smoked salmon to tempt middle class shoppers to its aisles
- Supermarkets are cutting prices in a bid to win back cash-strapped shoppers
- It comes as new data shows grocery inflation remains high at 16.5 percent
M&S has announced price cuts to 70 ‘family staples’ including avocado, smoked salmon and Greek yoghurt as it bids to win back middle-class shoppers to its stores.
The retailer will reduce prices while also extending a price lock on 150 of its other ‘customer favourites’ as it battles to increase its customer numbers following the cost of living crisis.
Supermarkets are beginning to cut costs to customers as they seek to win back shoppers who may have switched elsewhere due to rampant food inflation, which peaked at 19.1 percent in April.
M&S items such as minced beef, chickpeas and ciabatta rolls will also see their price tags plummet.
Official figures released on Tuesday show that supermarket inflation, which is measured separately to food inflation, has eased to 16.5 percent, the lowest it has been since the start of the year.
M&S has announced price cuts to 70 ‘family staples’ including avocado, smoked salmon and Greek yoghurt as it bids to win back middle-class shoppers to its stores
But it remains the sixth-highest level since the 2008 financial crisis, according to data experts Kantar.
M&S is cutting a pack of four smoked salmon pieces by 11 percent from £11.25 to £10.00 and a pack of two avocados by five percent from £2 to £1.90.
A 500g tub of Greek yoghurt will be cut by 12 percent from £1.25 to £1.10, chickpeas by 25 percent from 80p to 60p, and ciabatta rolls by 11 percent from £1.80 to £1.60.
The retailer’s beef mince will take a 20p cut, or five percent, to £3.30 and seeded tortilla wraps a 5p drop, or three percent.
Meanwhile antibacterial handwash will see a 20 percent decrease from £1 to 80p.
The supermarket is also extending its price lock on 150 items into autumn, including ‘essentials’ such as pork sausages, corn on the cob, coleslaw and cheddar cheese.
Alex Freudmann, Managing Director at M&S Food: ‘We know value is everything to our customers right now, and while they’re looking forward to a great summer, they’re also looking for certainty on spending.
‘Our latest price investment across 200 products upholds our trusted value promise and delivers on that certainty.
‘Trusted value means offering the best possible quality at the best possible price. I’m proud that we are the number one retailer for farm animal welfare, selling the biggest range of RSPCA Assured products, including our Scottish Smoked Salmon fillets and British Pork Sausages, alongside our DNA traceable Beef mince – able to be traced back to the individual farm and animal.
Supermarkets around the UK are dropping prices in a bid to win back shoppers amid the cost of living crisis
M&S is cutting the price of a two-pack of avocados by five percent as part of its ‘family staples’ pledge
‘We’re determined to keep up the pace for our customers. Our value perception is at its highest point in six years because we are relentlessly focused on price with no compromise to the magic of M&S Food – our market leading product quality, innovation and sourcing standards.’
It comes as supermarkets across the UK begin reducing the burden on customers as forecasts predict inflation will continue to fall.
Last week Tesco, Britain’s biggest supermarket chain, said food price inflation had peaked.
M&S’s announcement followed Morrisons, which said it would lower the prices of 47 items by an average of 25 percent across a range of ‘high-volume’ goods.
This includes products such as ham, tomatoes and spinach, as well as other picnic items, the UK’s fifth largest supermarket said.
Both announcements come as supermarket bosses try to lure cash-strapped consumers through their doors.
Morrisons said it has invested £26m to hold these prices for at least eight weeks, marking the chain’s sixth round of reductions so far this year.
Read more: Food price inflation drops to its lowest monthly rate this year yet… but is STILL in double digits and is at its sixth-highest figure since 2008
The supermarket lost its spot in the ‘Big Four’ last year as bargain hunters flocked to German discounter Aldi.
Aldi sits alongside Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Asda as the most popular supermarkets in Britain in terms of market share.
Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey said food prices had been slower to come down than initially predicted by manufacturers, contributing to higher-than-expected overall inflation which stood at nearly 9 percent in April.
Many prices are still rising significantly. Experts said prices were rising fastest for products such as eggs, cooking sauces and frozen potatoes.
Barbecue food has also seen significant price increases, with fresh sausage prices up 16 percent and fresh burgers 13 percent more expensive.
Kantar also found the proportion of products sold for £1 had almost halved in a year from 9 percent to 5 percent.
Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar, said: ‘This is the lowest rate of grocery price inflation we’ve seen in 2023, which will be a relief to shoppers and retailers.
‘But prices rising at 16.5 per cent isn’t something to celebrate and it’s still the sixth highest monthly figure in the past 15 years.
‘Price rises are now being compared to the increasing rate of grocery inflation seen last summer, which means that it should continue to fall in the coming months, a welcome result for everyone.’
A survey for Kantar found that of consumers’ top five financial worries, rising grocery prices is the only one that they are more concerned about now than at the start of this year.
Almost 70 percent of households are either ‘extremely’ or ‘very worried’ about food and drink inflation, compared to just over two thirds when asked the same question in January.
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