String of c-store offers

Neighbourhood retailers have unleashed a barrage of deals as they fight back against new year price-cutting campaigns by the big supermarkets.
Costcutter is advertising a string of offers in the national press, including eight-packs of Carling for £4.99 and six-packs of Pepsi for £1.22.

The Co-operative Group has begun a £16m marketing campaign, plugging buy-one-get-one-free and half-price offers on national TV and radio channels and in national newspapers. It includes TV ads featuring local customers with the strapline ‘It’s our Co-op. They’re our deals’.

And Budgens is advertising promotions such as buy-one-get-one-free on six-packs of Müller Vitality drinks and 2kg packs of King Edward potatoes for £1.29 in national newspapers.

The offers follow revelations last week that Tesco is planning a massive price-cutting assault (The Grocer, January 21).

In addition, Asda this week announced a further £102m investment in price cuts for the first quarter of the year, with non-food being a core focus. “We’re putting our money where our mouth is with this investment,” said Tony Page, Asda’s non-food trading director. “Shoppers should expect more aggressive cuts throughout the year.”

Costcutter is the biggest chain supplied by Nisa-Today’s and its deals represent a wider set of offers kicked off by the group for its retail members. Nisa-Today’s promised the promotions to offset sales lost by members after deliveries were affected by problems at its ambient depot in Scunthorpe.

The company said the problems had been solved - retailers’ service levels were at 97% and deliveries were running two days after orders as intended. It also said minor IT glitches involving its Retek Order Capture System raised earlier this month had been dealt with.

However, Nisa-Today’s is cracking on with its promotions. “From January 23 to February 11, Nisa-Today’s is running strong promotions in its consumer leaflet,” said group commercial MD Neil Turton. “The periods up to Easter will feature our strongest promotional activity of the year so far, including 14 ‘wow’ deals through ambient, licensed, frozen and chilled.”