Supermarket changes hundreds of products in battle against Aldi and Lidl

Morrisons has become the latest supermarket to try to win back customers from the German challenger shops as it announced it would match prices of more than 200 products with Lidl and Aldi.

Morrisons said that the products it had chosen were ones that people buy a lot of.

The food shops said that from Monday more than 200 products on its shelves would be marked as being the same price or lower as the two discount retailers, following Asda which took a similar step recently.

Supermarket chain Morrisons (PA Archive)

But the price match guarantee, which will be checked against the rivals twice a week, only includes a sliver of the products on sale at the supermarket.

The announcement will also not mean price cuts for most of the products that are included in the price match.

“The vast majority of the products which are now Price Matched to Aldi and Lidl were already the same price, today’s announcement is about reassuring customers and helping to change perception,” the supermarket said.

Aldi and Lidl have been taking customers from the traditional supermarkets over the last decade.

Aldi and Lidl are in a price war (PA Media)

Ten years ago Morrisons had 11.3% of the grocery market, in the most recent data from Kantar it had 8.8%.

Over the same period Aldi’s market share has gone from 4.1% to 9.3%, while Lidl has grown from 3.1% to 7.5%.

Chief customer and marketing officer Rachel Eyre said: “We want to reassure our customers that we have hundreds of products that are the same price or cheaper, with the quality they’ve come to expect from us, than those available at Aldi and Lidl which is why we have launched our new Price Match.

“We hope this new campaign will bring our quality and value into even sharper focus for our customers.”

Last week Aldi revealed plans to spend £550 million on opening new stores and upgrading existing ones in the UK this year.

The chain said more than 1,500 jobs would be created from new shop openings.

Giles Hurley, Aldi’s UK and Ireland chief executive, said this year’s expansion plans are aiming to address the fact that “there are still areas of the country that don’t have an Aldi, or that need more or larger stores to meet demand”.

The chain said it was on the lookout for sites in town centres or on the outskirts of towns to set up shop.

It previously said it was searching for sites in priority locations including parts of London, Penzance, Bath, Maidenhead, Worthing, Warrington, Newcastle upon Tyne, Nottingham, Derby, Birmingham, Cambridge, York, Cardiff and Cathcart.