Sainsbury's ditches 'brand match' for lower everyday prices

Sainsbury’s has announced plans to scrap its ‘brand match’ scheme by the end of the month as the next step in its recent strategy to focus on lower regular prices.

The supermarket said the move reinforced its commitment to offer lower prices on key products that customers buy on a regular basis, such as chicken, bread, cheese, fresh produce and household cleaning items.

Research by the company, which in February said it was deliberately phasing out multi-buy promotions in favour of cutting regular prices, found the vast majority of customers thought lower regular prices were more important than the 'brand match’ promotion that has been running since 2011.

Marketing director Sarah Warby said: “We’ve taken this on board and will now be investing all of the money from the scheme into lowering the regular prices on everyday products.

“We know that customers like the changes we’ve already made to the way we price our products because it fits with the way people shop now. Our customers are shopping more frequently across multiple channels and they want to be able to buy the products they love, in the quantities they need, safe in the knowledge that they are getting great value for money. Our simpler, clearer pricing lets them do just that.”

The ‘brand match’ scheme worked by comparing Sainsbury’s prices with similar branded products at Asda. If the Asda items were cheaper on a basket of at least 10 items, Sainsbury’s would then offer its customers a money-off coupon to be redeemed against their next shop.

Sainsbury’s said it will still monitor the prices of branded products to make sure it remains competitive.

At 1140 BST, Sainsbury’s shares were up 2% to 285.40p.