Grocer 33 Price - When it comes to prices, Asda's in a class of its own

Asda’s latest victory in the Grocer 33 award for price comes as no surprise - but that shouldn’t take anything away from the achievement.

It’s the EDLP retailer’s 16th win in a row. In fact, Asda is the only supermarket to win this award since it was launched, a clear demonstration of its consistently market-leading position on price.

And Asda dominated the competition even more than usual this year, winning 41 times out of a possible 50, a sterling win rate of 82%.

As usual, the only area where Asda lagged behind its rivals was on the number of promotions, although to its arsenal of rollbacks it added ‘price locks’ this year. Given the number of surveys suggesting UK shoppers are becoming confused as a result of the sheer amount of promotions, EDLP looks compelling.

Asda also poured £100m into investing in the price of essentials, pegging back the price of staple products like bread, milk and minced beef, ostensibly to set a distance between Asda and its rival supermarkets, but also to fight off the increasing threat of discounters such as Aldi, Lidl and Iceland.

It’s another example of Asda’s determination to retain its position as the cheapest supermarket in the UK. And after its performance over the last 50 Grocer 33 weeks, and a look at the performance of the chasing pack, there is no sign of Asda letting that crown slip.

Morrisons was closest behind Asda with seven wins. Surprisingly, Tesco won just twice compared with seven wins in 2012. Less surprisingly, Sainsbury’s and Waitrose failed to win even once.