Sainsbury’s abandons ‘brand match’ scheme to cut prices on basics

The last Brand Match coupons will be issued on April 26

The money from the scheme will be wholly reinvested in lowering the regular prices of everyday products that matter most to customers (Sainsbury's)

Sainsbury’s will end its Brand Match promotion, introduced in 2011, in three weeks's time.

The supermarket will reinvest the money from the scheme on reducing the prices of basics such as bread, cheese and household cleaning products.

The Brand Match scheme allowed shoppers to get discount vouchers if it was proven that branded goods were cheaper at rival Asda.

Increasingly shoppers buy little and often, which means fewer baskets contain the 10 items needed to qualify for Brand Match.

Sainsbury's, currently the best performer of UK’s big four supermarkets, said hundreds of products will have a lower regular price starting from the 27th of April.

(Sainsbury's)

British beef mince will cost £3.30 down from £4, the price of 460g chicken breast fillet portion will cost £2.95 down from £3.30.

Sarah Warby, Sainsbury’s Marketing director said the supermarket decided to end the scheme due to a shift in shopping patterns.

“Customers have told us that they want lower regular prices, and that this is more important to them than Brand Match. 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,“ Warby said.

“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,” she added.

Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda and Morrison’s have struggled to compete with German discount supermarkets Aldi and Lidl. The ongoing price war has seen supermarket prices fall for more than a year.

In February, Sainsbury's said it would phase out multi-buy promotions across its grocery business by August.