Aldi and Lidl are in the crosshairs of Tesco Ireland as it targets the discounters with its latest ‘Price Promise’ guarantee.
The Irish arm of the retail giant is now comparing at checkout the prices of its products with comparable items at both Aldi and Lidl. If a basket of 10 or more items costs more at Tesco, customers will be given a voucher up to €10 to make up the difference towards their next shop. The promotion will mostly cover own-label products, but some identical branded items will also be included.
A UK Tesco spokeswoman told The Grocer: “Our aim is to be competitive on price no matter what the market. In Ireland more people do their weekly shop at Aldi and Lidl, and both have bigger market shares than in the UK, so we feel we must make customers there aware that the price gap between Tesco and the discounters is a lot smaller than they think.
“The voucher scheme guarantees we won’t be more expensive than the discounters. There are no plans to do something similar in the UK, where we feel our current price promise offer is extremely competitive.”
The price promise started in Tesco Ireland today.
The move will help to change the perception that everyday products are cheapest at the discounters, according to Henry Dummer, MD of Tesco Ireland. He said that around 13 million vouchers will be handed out over the next 12 months, with a value between £850,000 to £1.1m, and that the scheme will cover 60% of total sales.
Aldi and Lidl have respective market shares of 7.4% and 7.5% in Ireland in comparison to 3.8% and 3% in the UK market, according to Kantar Worldpanel.
Tesco’s market share in Ireland slipped to 26.8% in the 12 weeks ending 15 September, with sales down 5.6%.
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