Another front in the supermarket prices wars has been opened after Supervalu rolled out €86m worth of fresh price reductions. It takes to €200m, the number of price cuts the store says have been implemented since the beginning of the year.
Supervalu says that almost 2000 product lines on its shelves have fallen in price since the beginning of the year and claims that the cost of an average weekly trolley of goods across its 194 independently owned stores has fallen 23 per cent or €30, from €129.96 to €98.56.
The store, which is owned by the Musgrave Group, said yesterday the long-term price cuts were being "delivered without sacrificing SuperValu's commitment to Irish suppliers and Irish jobs". It said it had been able to introduce the cuts by working "closely with our suppliers and managing our own cost base".
Supervalu's managing director Donal Horgan said " 75 per cent of everything on SuperValu's shelves is sourced or produced in Ireland and this is set to continue". He said the company's dealings with Irish suppliers and producers was worth in excess of €2.85 billion every year to the Irish economy and indirectly supported 14,000 Irish jobs.
Its move mirrors price cuts implemented in some of the other major retailers in the Republic. In early May, Tesco Ireland announced a radical overhaul of its structure and pricing and dropped the prices in stores in border counties by an average of 22 per cent. It has spent the intervening period rolling out the new structures in its other stores.
Marks and Spencer announced last week it was dropping the prices in its homeware and clothing departments by an average of 12 per cent while Dunnes Stores has also been actively engaged in a campaign of price reductions over the last six weeks in direct response to the Tesco move.