After snaring the title of Britain’s favourite supermarket for six years on the trot, Tesco was usurped by Asda last year for the first time since 2004. Proving it wasn’t a fluke, Asda has now triumphed for the second year in a row, built on its price and value-for-money proposition.

The fragile economic recovery, coupled with skyrocketing fuel and commodity prices, only served to cement the importance of these values to consumers. Based on a weighted survey of almost 6,000 UK households commissioned exclusively for The Grocer by Nielsen, the ranking also takes into account quality, promotions, the shopping experience, range, customer service and ethics.

With all of the grocers reinforcing their value for money credentials over the last 12 months, “the outcome of this year’s award suggests that Asda is communicating its proposition more effectively than anyone else,” said Nielsen senior manager for retailer services Mike Watkins.

While its renewed focus on EDLP pricing, and the Asda Price Guarantee website, certainly helped to cement Asda’s well-known reputation on price, the rollout of Asda’s own-label Chosen by You range in 2010/11 has been instrumental in its success these past two years - it now accounts for 40% of the retailer’s food sales.

The retailer also benefited from the acquisition of Netto. In addition to increasing Asda’s market share, these 140-plus smaller format stores were introduced without the need to increase prices. Asda boss Andy Clarke told the IGD Convention that sales were already 45% higher than they had been under Netto.

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