Tim Palmer Multiple buyers have been warned they will destroy the value of Britain's best selling alcoholic drink if they continue their ruthless price war on cases of Stella Artois. Both Sainsbury and Tesco have been using the brand to attract consumers during the World Cup. Tesco cut the deepest with a half price deal on cases of 24 330ml bottles to offer them at £9.99. Sainsbury chopped £3.50 off the 24 pack of 25cl bottles to get the price down to £9.99, while Asda cut £4 of its price for the pack to £8.88. Sainsbury's best premium lager deal is on cases of 24 330ml bottles of Bud Ice which it is offering at £11.99 ­ a reduction of £13. It has also halved the price of cases of 24 275ml bottles of Beck's to offer them at £12.49. The cuts are close to the pre-Christmas levels that the brewers hoped would not be repeated. Interbrew said it could not control the retail price of the brands and made it clear that severe discounting resulted in value destruction of the category and benefited no one. Chief executive Stewart Gilliland said: "Retailers have been finding it difficult to keep up with demand and this has been exacerbated by their pricing policies. "We had hundreds of extra people helping in the stores during the run-up to the Queen's Jubilee celebrations and the World Cup and it was staggering to see the number of gaps in the fixtures." He added: "Stella has been subject to more pricing activity than any other brand and so far it has not been damaged, but we want to get some balance back into activity that supports it. "It shouldn't be just price, price, price all the time. We need to demonstrate that other activity can have just as positive an impact on sales and improve retailers' profitability." {{NEWS }}

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