Every year the result is the same. And the winning retailer makes it look incredibly easy. But, of course, it’s not. Every year it gets harder, not least as The Grocer ups the ante - we’re now tracking 3,000 products. And that makes Asda’s latest win in the G33 Gold Award for price - an incredible 15th victory in a row - every bit as impressive as the first.

During a year in which the number of promotions shot through the roof, brand match schemes spread like a virus and £5 vouchers off your next shop became commonplace, Asda decided to focus its energies on rollbacks and EDLP. Throughout 2011 Asda regularly ran the lowest number of price cuts and multibuys, but it still regularly secured first place for price in The Grocer 33.

Its consistent performance serves to reinforce the message that Asda is the cheapest supermarket of them all, with the retailer triumphing in 37 of 50 weeks - an enviable 74% of the time.

Securing a dim and distant second place was Tesco, which won seven weeks out of 50. However, it was a yo-yo year for Britain’s biggest supermarket group, which endured plenty of third and fourth place finishes.

Morrisons finished third overall with five. When it didn’t finish first in a particular week it consistently snared second or third place. As for Sainsbury’s it enjoyed a livelier year than usual adding top spot in ‘Green week’, to a number of respectable third place finishes. Bringing up the rear was Waitrose, which stunned the industry by reaching third place one week, though it slipped back to its usual fifth position the following week.

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