Asda wins cheapest supermarket but not by Allan Leighton’s targeted margin

Asda claimed a third Grocer 33 pricing win in the last four weeks, but it was still not yet hitting executive chairman Allan Leighton’s ambition to go 5%-10% cheaper than its main supermarket rivals.

At £74.03 the Leeds-based retailer was £2.68 cheaper than last week’s winner Sainsbury’s. Asda, which saw year-on-year inflation of 2%, offered the lowest price for 15 items and was exclusively cheapest for 13 including the Activia yoghurt, Galaxy Minstrels Easter egg, Malteser Mini Bunnies and the Nivea Soft moisturiser. However, the gap to Sainsbury’s was just 3.5%.

Sainsbury’s was cheapest for seven items and exclusively so for three: the chicken slices, hot cross buns and lemons. It also had the biggest discount for its loyalty scheme members, with Nectar members receiving £5.90 off. Annual inflation for Sainsbury’s was just 0.3%.

Third-placed Tesco gave a £4.19 discount through its loyalty prices. The UK’s biggest retailer was £3.23 more expensive than Asda, a differential of 4.2%. Tesco, which had inflation of just 0.7%, was cheapest for a dozen items and exclusively so for eight.

Despite its prices being 0.3% cheaper than in April 2024, Morrisons was £3.89 more expensive than its Yorkshire rival Asda. Just like Sainsbury’s it was cheapest for seven items and exclusively so for three. Morrisons also had a total of 16 items on deal this week, although only four of these were discounted prices while 12 were multibuys.

Waitrose struggled the most to keep a lid on inflation, with prices up 4.8% compared to a year ago. It also lacked competitiveness as it came in £15.45 more expensive than Asda at £89.48, a difference of 17.3%.

Overall prices were up 1.5% year on year while they fell 0.9% compared to last month.