Aldi and Lidl have responded to the potential merger between Sainsbury’s and Asda by promising they won’t be beaten on price.
Sainsbury’s last week pledged to cut prices on everyday items by 10 per cent if its £12 billion merger with Walmart-owned Asda passes the competition authorities.
Chief executive Mike Coupe said he wanted to put pressure on large suppliers and pass cost savings on to consumers.
However, the German discounters vowed to remain cheaper than their rivals.
A spokesman for Aldi said: “We will never be beaten on price and are absolutely committed to maintaining the significant price gap between Aldi and our competitors.”
A Lidl spokeswoman added: “Our customers can be assured that we cannot be beaten on price,” claiming the discounter’s buying power and simple operating model gave it “unparalleled resilience”.
Both retailers are understood to be willing to undercut the new grocery giant in any product area.
According to Kantar data, Lidl is the UK’s fastest-growing physical supermarket with sales up 9.1 per cent, while Aldi enjoys strong sales growth of 7.7 per cent.
The two supermarkets, which both have big expansion plans, have a combined market share of 12.7 per cent, however, this is less than half of Sainbury’s-Asda’s potential combined share of 31.4 per cent.
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