As the freezing conditions over Easter finally receded, there’s no sign of the price war thawing as supermarkets upped promotions again last month.

With 2,472 deals, Sainsbury’s led the pack, offering 636 more - an increase of 34.64% - than it did a year ago [Assosia 4 w/e 27 April 2013].

It ran 216 more promotions than its nearest rival Tesco, 302 more than Morrisons, 376 more than Asda and a whopping 1,292 more than Waitrose.

However, Waitrose offered the biggest savings, at least in value terms, knocking £2.22 off its (considerably higher) average starting price of £6.57 - some 44p more than Sainsbury’s £1.78. Its closest rival was Morrisons, with a typical saving of £1.90, though the average saving at Sainsbury’s was fractionally higher, at 34.89%.

Sainsbury’s was also beaten on its breadth of promotions. It increased promotions across seven of the 12 main categories, led by chilled food (up 2.5%) and produce (up 2.5%), but Morrisons had more deals in nine of the 12. Morrisons was particularly strong in beer, wines and spirits deals (up 2.9%) and health, beauty and baby (up 2.5%).

In contrast, Waitrose increased promotions in just four categories. However, it was the only retailer to record a double-digit increase in promotions in any category, upping offers in beers, wines and spirits by 11.12% versus a year ago.

Although the most popular promotional mechanic during the period remained the traditional ‘save’ deal, accounting for 37.8% of promotions, ‘X for Y’ continues to gather momentum. After steadily increasing its share of in the past few months, X for Y was the only mechanic to increase this month. There were 9% more than a year ago, taking its share of promotional space from 22.81% to 31.89%.

The biggest faller was the ‘half price’ deal - down 3.56% to account for 21.4% of space.

As spring finally put in an appearance over the period, it was no surprise the number of cleaning products on promotion increased, as consumers set about their annual spring clean.

Promotions on beer & lager and soft drinks also rose as retailers and suppliers looked to tap up shoppers enjoying the better weather.

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