Morrisons has piled the pressure on rival Sainsbury’s after revealing it has reduced the cost of shopping at Safeway by 24 per cent since taking control of the supermarket chain last month.
The Bradford-based group has promised to lower the price of 4,300 products in Safeway stores over the next few weeks.
The biggest saving is a crown of broccoli which is 61 per cent cheaper than it used to be, costing 35p down from 89p, while Golden Delicious apples see a saving of 34 per cent down from £1.49 to 99p.
Analysts believe the depth of the price cuts would increase the woes of Sainsbury’s. Analysts at Merrill Lynch have calculated that Sainsbury’s would need to spend £650 million - almost one year’s pre-tax profit - to bring its prices down by five per cent to match those at Asda and Tesco. Research by the bank, which tracked a basket of 3,000 grocery items across the UK supermarket sector, revealed that Sainsbury’s was 74 per cent more expensive than Asda and Tesco.
Morrisons said shoppers at Safeway’s larger stores, which will shortly be re-branded as Morrisons, are paying almost £12 - or 24 per cent -- less for a basket of 23 per cent than they were under the group's old management.
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