• Morrisons cuts prices on more than 160 products
  • Latest Price Crunch investment focuses on meat, fruit and vegetables
  • Comes as big four rival Asda prepares to plough cash into price

Morrisons will slash prices on around 160 products this week as the grocer fires its latest salvo in the supermarket price war.

The supermarket chain will cut the prices of meat, fruit and vegetables by an average of 12% from today, as part of the latest investment into its Price Crunch campaign.

It comes just a month after Morrisons trimmed prices of more than 1,000 basket staples – including seasonal fresh produce and toiletries – by an average of 18%.

The Bradford-based grocer has so far slashed prices on almost 4,500 products as part of the Price Crunch initiative, which it relaunched at the start of the year.

Price war

Morrisons’ new boss David Potts re-introduced the rolling programme of cuts as part of his efforts to make the retailer more competitive on price with discount duo Aldi and Lidl, which continue to eat into the market share of the big four.

Tesco and Sainsbury’s have already reposnded, with the former introducing its entry-level Farms brands earlier this year and investing in its Brand Guarantee initiative to give shoppers instant discounts at the till.

Sainsbury’s has moved towards an everyday low price model, removing multi-buy promotional deals from its shelves and instead focusing on lower, regular prices.

Walmart-owned Asda is expected to launch a fresh wave of price cuts of its own in the coming weeks as new boss Sean Clarke bids to revive ailing sales, which nosedived 7.5% during its second quarter.

During Walmart shareholders week – attended exclusively by Retail Week – the US retail titan’s international boss Dave Cheesewright admitted he was “very disappointed” with Asda’s performance and put its UK rivals on red alert by warning it would now shift its focus from maintaining profit to growing market share.

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