As the grocers gear up for the key Christmas trading period, they launch into claim after counter claim about how much they can save customers this year. But who will win the battle?

Sainsbury’s chief executive Justin King said this week that Christmas was going to be feisty in terms of promotions. And he was right. Just the following day his two big rivals - Asda and Tesco - both made bold statements, promising their customers they could save them money.
In Asda’s case, it claims it has cut £150m off the price of Christmas, and Tesco - always wanting to go one better - claims it is making £250m of price cuts.

And Sainsbury’s is not afraid of taking a swipe too. At its interims on Wednesday, King proudly showed off his Christmas advertising campaign. One of the ads focuses on its loyalty scheme Nectar, targeting those customers who have more than £50 stored up on their cards. And in a dig at rival Tesco’s Clubcard scheme, King said Nectar points can be used for money-off at any time, rather than “those schemes that send vouchers which have cut off dates”.

The knives have truly been drawn and we are still six weeks from Christmas.

Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without the supermarkets fighting for customer spend. And the question is, who will win?

Many analysts have made reference to Tesco being back on form. And Tesco is waging war on its competitors this Christmas, both in food and non-food. But the other grocers are still gaining share too. And they may not be able to compete with Tesco in every category, but will battle hard in the sectors where they are strong.

Analyst Oriel said Asda’s point about the impact of lower inflation in terms of its slowdown in like-for-like sales in its Q3 results was “fair enough” but added that after a period of underperformance Tesco is returning to form.

The broker said Asda’s lead over Tesco is slipping and the market leader’s mail out of further Clubcard vouchers will help further.

We won’t know if Tesco can keep it up until next year and the industry takes a breather from the manic of Christmas. And in the meantime, if shoppers are savvy, they can get some real bargains this Christmas.