When it comes to promotional activity, no one could accuse Asda of following the crowd.

In the past four weeks, its four biggest rivals have all increased their number of featured space promotions compared with the same period a year ago [Assosia 4 w/e 17 February 2013]. Asda, meanwhile, seems to be sticking to its EDLP pledge and has cut its number of deals from 1,904 this time last year to 1,781.

The year-on-year increases in activity by the other four retailers - including a massive 45.8% hike in the case of Waitrose - has transformed the promotional landscape compared with a year ago, when Asda was running the greatest number of deals. This dubious honour has gone to Sainsbury’s over the past four weeks, while Morrisons and Tesco have offered virtually the same number, with Asda now fourth.

One thing all five retailers have in common is a year-on-year decline in the depth of the deals they are offering. Most notably, Tesco reduced its average saving by seven percentage points to 32.4%.

Last year’s drought in the US and the wet summer here sent prices of everything from apples to maize rocketing. And egg prices have not escaped the impact.

Already under pressure from the battery cage ban, which came in at the beginning of 2012, prices have shot up further because of the effect of the weather on feed costs.

Prices of egg yolk powder, shell eggs and egg white liquid are all up more than 20% on last year, even though prices have eased slightly over the past month, following an expected 2% increase in EU egg production, to 6.2 million tonnes, in 2013.

Skimmed milk powder prices have also risen sharply over the past year. Prices are 14% higher than a year ago and they’ve also risen sharply over the past month. The increase is down to low production levels and limited stocks. Limited supplies have also affected prices of whole milk powder, Cheddar and whey powder.

They are also adopting a similar stance when it comes to the promotional mechanics used. Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Asda have all reduced the number of ‘save’ deals they run, with the former two increasing their half-price offers and Asda ramping up its x-for-y deals.

The most popular mechanic nevertheless remains the straight ‘save’ deal, which accounts for 37.5% of all promos, followed by x-for-y offers at 34%. The use of half-price offers has increased by two percentage points year-on-year, and now account for 21.4% of all featured space promos.

As The Grocer reported two weeks ago (‘Is the promotions landscape shifting towards own-label?’, 9 February), there has been a big swing in favour of own-label promotional activity year-on-year. But, again, Asda is bucking the trend: while all the other top five retailers have increased the proportion of own-label promotions they run, Asda has cut own-label from 15% to 14% of all deals.

Taking a month-on-month view, all retailers are running fewer offers than in the previous four-week period, which included the tail-end of the festive frenzy. The total number of deals across the five retailers fell from 10,061 to 9,836.

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