Aldi has used a BBC Panorama investigation as a springboard to step up its fightback against the price-matching schemes of the traditional big four.
The discounter has placed ads in a number of national newspapers highlighting examples of Tesco products containing less of the main ingredient than Aldi’s, despite being a claimed ’match’.
Monday night’s Panorama found that of 122 price-matched products at Tesco, 37 contained at least five percentage points less of the main ingredient than Aldi’s, and only 12 contained at least five percentage points more.
In several cases the disparity was greater. Tesco Hearty Food Co chicken nuggets contained 39% chicken while Aldi’s Rooster chicken nuggets contained 60%. Tesco cottage pie contained 18% beef compared with the 25% in Aldi Inspired Cuisine cottage pie.
The two examples were highlighted yesterday in Aldi ads in newspapers including the Sun, Mirror, Daily Mail and Metro London.
Aldi CEO also raised the programme directly with customers in a marketing email on Wednesday, saying it “revealed some eye-opening findings about supermarket price-matching”.
“They found that many of Tesco’s products, which claim to be price-matched with Aldi, are not like-for-like,” he said.
“The programme, which aired on BBC One, highlighted that nearly a third of Tesco’s matched products contain less of the main ingredient compared to Aldi’s. This really reinforces what we’ve always believed: Aldi is the only supermarket where you can count on both top-quality products and low prices.”
He added: “We’re aware that other retailers might claim to match our prices, but as this research shows, these claims are not always what they appear to be.”
Tesco has argued that a higher proportion of any one ingredient does not necessarily indicate better quality.
A Tesco spokesperson said: “We constantly review the quality of our products, and we have clear processes in place to ensure that the hundreds of products that are included are comparable with those sold at Aldi.”
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