Britain’s leading supermarkets have embarked on a price war in a boost to millions of families facing a cost of living crisis.
In a bold sign of intent, Lidl vowed to be the lowest-priced supermarket in the UK this year.
The pledge came a day after Aldi made exactly the same promise, setting up a fierce battle between the two German discounters.
Battle lines drawn: In a bold sign of intent, Lidl vowed to be the lowest priced supermarket in the UK this year. The pledge came just a day after Aldi made exactly the same promise
Experts said the battle to be the cheapest grocer would force larger rivals including Tesco and Sainsbury’s to keep prices low.
Shore Capital retail analyst Clive Black said: ‘Aldi and Lidl will keep Sainsbury’s and Tesco honest in terms of price rises.’
If other grocers move to ‘over-inflate’ prices then Aldi and Lidl will capitalise and grow even faster, he added. Sainsbury’s and Tesco currently promise to price match Aldi on hundreds of products.
On Monday Aldi’s UK chief executive Giles Hurley said budgeting would be the ‘top priority’ for most families this year amid a cost of living crisis.
‘He pledged to make the grocer the UK’s cheapest ‘no matter what’.
Yesterday, Lidl’s outgoing UK chief executive Christian Hartnagel said: ‘As inflation continues to rise, I want to reassure every one of our customers that we remain resolute in our promise of being the destination for the lowest grocery prices in the market.’
Lidl said that it increased sales in the month up to Christmas by 2.6 per cent from year earlier and sold a Christmas jumper every two seconds when they were launched in late November.
