Supermarket group Sainsbury’s is to launch its Brand Match price initiative across the UK from Wednesday as grocery competition hots up.

The roll-out of the scheme, as revealed on Friday on Retail-Week.com, follows a trial in 12 stores in Northern Ireland and follows £500m of price-cuts by Tesco.

Sainsbury’s group commercial director Mike Coupe said: “The launch of Sainsbury’s Brand Match across the UK represents a revolution in retail and is fantastic news for hard-pressed shoppers.

“We have been listening to feedback from consumers and they tell us that stretched budgets mean they are shopping around to get the best deals on the brands they love. The introduction of the Sainsbury’s Brand Match ensures they will no longer need to do this.

“Unlike some of our competitors we aren’t asking customers to do the hard work to check on our prices.

“We know shoppers don’t want the hassle of having to enter different pieces of information on their computer at home before having to then print out a coupon just to check they are getting the best deal. We are so confident that our prices are competitive with Asda and Tesco that we are happy to do the legwork for our customers.

Then scheme uses verified price data from external provider BrandView, to instantly calculate the cost of a customer’s basket of branded grocery goods compared to the cost of the same branded basket at Asda and Tesco, including promotions.

If the branded grocery basket would have been cheaper at either competitor, customers will immediately receive a coupon equal to the value of the difference. The coupons can be redeemed on the customer’s next shop with Sainsbury’s.