Booths has permanently cut the price of more than 1,000 non-food groceries across its larger stores and is promising customers savings of up to 25%.

The upmarket northern supermarket chain rolled out the price cuts on 2 January on products such as Lenor Concentrated fabric conditioner, Persil Gel Tablets, Dove Bodywash, Simple Cleansing Wipes, Aquafresh toothpaste, Pantene shampoo and Elnett hairspray.

The campaign is being promoted on billboards and banners outside Booths’ stores, in local and national media, and on special PoS material.

A spokeswoman said the campaign was an independent Booths initiative. She said Booths’ ability to invest in the price cuts was a direct result of the buying alliance set up with Waitrose in September 2008.

It is the second January campaign in two years from Booths. Last year it went head-to-head with Tesco by launching a tertiary range of more than 170 lines across all grocery categories, with products including Enliven shampoo and Bokomo cereal.

The retailer has reported a 2.5% increase in like-for-like sales over the Christmas period. Sales rose 8.4% in the 12 trading days of Christmas and New Year, despite poor weather conditions in its trading areas of Cumbria, Lancashire, Yorkshire and Cheshire.

Booths trading director Chris Dee said product availability had been good and there had been particularly strong sales of premium lines and beer, wines and spirits.

Sales of turkeys and meats had been “record-breaking” following the launch of the retailer’s first online pre-order service for fresh roasting meat and poultry.

“2009 was a challenging year, especially towards the end of the year when severe weather conditions affected a number of our stores across the two-week period,” Dee said. “We are pleased with the results and continue to be competitive on prices, while maintaining the quality of our offer.”

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