Budgens is launching an audacious bid to take on the brands with a new own-label range it claims is 20% cheaper.

More than 1,000 SuperValu SKUs will be rolled into Budgens stores on 16 April, Donal Horgan, the MD of Musgrave Retail Partners GB, revealed to The Grocer. Some 485 products will follow in Londis stores on 7 May.

A basket of brands would be displayed next to a comparable basket of SuperValu products brandishing the 20% cheaper pledge, added the company, which has hired eXecutional to run in-store tasting and hand out money-off vouchers.

The launch follows a relaunch of the SuperValu range in Ireland, where it is sold in SuperValu-branded independents.

Meat and produce will be branded SuperValu from Budgens or Londis and sourced from Britain. Musgrave was also using the combined power of both regions for 600 ambient lines as the GB business alone did not have sufficient scale to deliver at a competitive price, said Horgan. “In some independents, the own brand product is actually more expensive than a promoted branded product,” he said. “You end up in a situation where the product just won’t sell.”

Musgrave had invested €1.5m in improving the range in Ireland before bringing it to the UK, he said, and was planning to grow own-label sales in Budgens by 15% and in Londis by 20%. Musgrave plans to grow own-label sales from €700m to €1bn by 2014 across its estate. Budgens and Londis will also sell 50 to 60 Daily Basics SKUs.

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