// Over 100 family favourites at Asda have dropped and locked in price until the end of 2022
// Shop floor colleagues will be paid £10.10 per hour plus bonus opportunity
Asda will invest over £73 million to help UK households to tackle rocketing inflation.
The supermarket revealed it has ‘dropped and locked’ the price of over 100 family favourites and will keep price low until the end of the year.
It has also confirmed to 120,000 hourly paid shop floor workers that their pay will increase to £10.10 per hour from July.
READ MORE:
- EG Group to create 32,000 jobs as it expands foodservice concessions to Asda
- Asda holds onto title of ‘most affordable supermarket’ for a full year
- Asda owner claims value of stake has risen 20-fold as it prepares bid for…
The move comes as Asda’s Pulse of the Nation survey found that 9 in 10 consumers are concerned about inflationary pressures to their budgets and 87% are worried that grocery prices will increase this year.
Asda’s latest Income Tracker has also recorded its biggest ever drop in disposable income in March. The tracker found that the nation’s lowest income families had 74% less disposable income in March compared to the same time last year.
Products covered by the ‘dropped and locked’ promise include a range of household favourites, including fresh fruit and vegetables, fresh meat, store cupboard favourites like rice and noodles, as well as soft drinks, desserts and frozen products.
On average, prices will fall by 12%. Products include staples such as John West tuna, dropping by 14% from £3.50 to £3, and 500g of Asda easy cook rice which has dropped by 25% down to 75p from £1.
The investment comes just weeks after the supermarket unveiled a multi-million investment into a new, budget-friendly essentials range – ‘Just Essentials at Asda’.
The value-focused range, which launches later next month and replaces Asda’s existing Smart Price products, will offer customers over 300 low price essential products.
It has been designed to ensure shoppers can keep the family fed, clean and watered on the tightest budget.
For Asda’s colleagues, the increase in hourly rate to £10.10 per hour from July will give an additional 60p on top of the National Living Wage and is further supported by a 10% colleague discount in stores and online and additional supplement for colleagues in London stores.
Colleagues also have the opportunity to achieve a bonus of up to £400 at the end of the year. This combined package will make Asda the highest paying UK supermarket, it claimed.
In addition, working with its charity, the Asda Foundation, the grocer’s community champions will help to invest over £2 million in local grassroots with a particular focus on supporting those most impacted by the cost-of-living crisis, by funding activities such as summer holiday clubs and community events.
Asda co-owner Mohsin Issa said: “We know that household budgets are being squeezed by an increasing cost of living and we are committed to doing everything we can to support our customers, colleagues and communities in these exceptionally tough times.
“We’re standing side by side with the families and communities who are juggling so many demands at the moment.
“We’re taking unprecedented action to give families some additional stability and certainty in their weekly shopping by lowering and locking over 100 prices until the end of the year. We’re also proud to be investing in increasing the pay for our hardworking store colleagues and continuing to support the communities we are part of.”
Click here to sign up to Retail Gazette‘s free daily email newsletter
