In an attempt to regain market share from challengers Lidl and Aldi, Asda has announced aggressive price matching with the German discount grocers across hundreds of core products.

The announcement comes following similar pledges from Sainsbury’s and Tesco, which have already credited their respective schemes as driving sales during the festive period.

The Issa brothers-owned supermarket on Friday said that it has reduced the prices of 287 products by an average of 17 per cent to match whichever discounter has the lowest price. The discounted products include milk, bread, cheese, tea, coffee, fresh meat, fresh fruit & vegetables, baked beans, pasta, rice and breakfast cereals.

Asda, which had historically served as a cheaper alternative to the likes of Sainsbury’s and M&S, has seen this status undermined by the explosive growth of Lidl and Aldi which between them have captured a 17 per cent market share, according to market researcher Kantar.

The supermarket also significantly underperformed compared to rivals in 2023, with Kantar noting that Asda’s sales rose by 3.4 per cent in the 12 weeks to 24 December year-over-year, compared to 7.5 per cent and 9.3 per cent growth at Tesco and Sainsbury’s respectively.

David Hills, Asda chief customer officer, said: “Asda has over 50 years heritage as the customer champion, and we understand we have an important role to play in local communities to help families get the most from their budgets. We have launched Aldi and Lidl Price Match to help them save both time and money.”

In comments to Reuters, a spokesperson for Aldi described Asda’s plan as a gimmick, adding: "The only place you get Aldi prices is at Aldi."

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