Danish discount supermarket Netto has waded into the UK’s grocery price war by slashing the price of key staple items.

In the latest sign that the European hard discounters are ramping up their efforts to snare credit-crunched UK consumers, Netto has cut the price of one in every 15 products across its entire range for the “foreseeable future”, which it estimates will deliver an annual saving for customers of more than£6 million.

Netto carries more than 1,000 product lines. Those items to have had their prices cut include fresh and frozen groceries such as butter, eggs and bread, alongside household and toiletries such as washing up liquid and detergent.

Netto UK managing director Richard Lancaster said: “This isn’t a gimmick, it’s about offering even lower prices for the foreseeable future on the nation’s weekly staple purchases. Our business is founded on low prices – it’s what we’ve been delivering for the past 18 years – and we’re committed to offering these reductions for the foreseeable future, not just a couple of days.”

Discount supermarkets have emerged as the fastest growing retailers in the grocery sector, according to this week’s TNS Worldpanel figures. The discounters now account for a 5.9 per cent share.

Lancaster maintained that, with inflation up to 3.8 per cent in June, the extra reductions will help consumers’ budgets stretch further in the credit crunch. “We’ve reduced the prices of products that shoppers actually want to buy – not just random groceries that are perhaps bought once or twice a year,” he said.

Discounters Netto, Lidl and Aldi are fast gaining favour with UK consumers as the credit crunch continues to bite. Aldi has pledged to open a store a week in the UK until it takes its store count up from its present total of 227 to 1,500.

The grocery price wars are also hotting up in the UK with Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda and Morrisons all fighting for cash-strapped customers.

Netto opened its first UK store in Leeds in 1990 and has 185 supermarkets across the UK at present. Its portfolio comprises more than 1,000 stores spanning Denmark, Germany, Poland, Sweden and the UK.