Asda is abandoning its price-match initiative with Aldi and Lidl merely a year after its introduction, as the UK’s fourth-largest supermarket strives to reclaim customers amidst escalating expenses.
Ceasing the scheme in favour of a broader “Rollback” price reduction campaign represents one of the most significant actions undertaken by Allan Leighton, Asda’s new chair. Leighton returned to lead Asda late last year, over twenty years after stepping down as chief executive.
He aims to assert greater control over Asda’s pricing communication and avoid the perception of “dancing to the tune of the discounters,” according to the Grocer trade journal, which initially reported the developments.
Asda is keen to boost sales and halt a swift decline in its grocery market share. In the last three months of the previous year, the Leeds-based retailer saw its sales plunge by 5.8%, as reported by Kantar analysts, making it the only major supermarket to experience a sales drop during that period.
An Asda spokesperson stated: “We’re focused on our own great ‘Asda Prices’ not competitor comparisons. We’ve started 2025 as we mean to go on by cutting prices on thousands of products and there’s much more to come with Rollback.”
These adjustments occur as Simon Roberts, CEO of Sainsbury’s—the UK’s second-largest supermarket—urges the government to align its economic growth objectives with an upcoming food strategy.
Roberts suggested that incorporating sustainable farming practices, such as using anaerobic digesters and other technologies to manage chicken manure or repurpose waste energy for heating greenhouses, should facilitate farms in obtaining planning permission for expansion.
“I feel we have now got a moment to link food strategy with growth in the wider economy and to attract more investment and give confidence to farmers to produce more at home,” he remarked.
He contended that the food sector holds “immense capacity to drive economic growth” and can “ensure the UK had a more sustainable food system – from an economic, environmental and self-sufficiency point of view.”
At the Sustainable Foods conference in London, Roberts emphasised the necessity for increased collaboration within the industry, including long-term supplier agreements from retailers and government support that would provide farmers with the assurance to invest.
Roberts criticised the existing system as “too siloed and prone to shocks.”
All major supermarkets have supported farmers in urging the government to reconsider changes to inheritance tax, which would impact family farms with land valued over £1 million.
Nevertheless, Guy Singh-Watson, the founder of the Riverford organic vegetable box scheme, accused supermarkets of hypocrisy regarding inheritance tax. He claimed that the farmers' struggles and requests for tax concessions were a result of retailers having “screwed farmers” on pricing.
“They are asking the taxpayer to subsidise their low prices,” he asserted.
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