// Sainsbury’s is to push Nectar prices “further and faster” with plans to bring it online
// The grocer also promised a new price push around entry price points
Sainsbury’s has promised a new price salvo around its entry price points as it expands its Nectar Prices online.
The move come as Britain’s second biggest supermarket looks to boost its value credentials to win share in an increasingly price sensitive market.
Boss Simon Roberts said the new initiative move to lower entry price points – which he said was the grocer’s “fastest growing tier” – would launch “in the next few weeks”.
“We’ve definitely seen a shift to entry price points. Customers are looking on the shelf and they’re making choices,” he said.
“We’ve got more news coming in the next few weeks. You’ll see us do more in entry price points – it’s really important to customers.”
Value was a keen theme of Sainsbury’s full-year results today as its investment in keeping prices low amid soaring inflation hit its profits.
“We really get how tough life is for so many households right now which is why we are absolutely determined to battle inflation for our customers,” Simon Roberts, CEO, Sainsbury’s
The grocer made an underlying pre-tax profit of £690m in the year to March 4, which despite being at the top end of guidance, was down from the £730m it made in 2021-22.
Roberts said: “We could have made choices to make more money last year. We didn’t choose to do that because it wasn’t the right thing to do. We chose to put more money into value.”
“We really get how tough life is for so many households right now which is why we are absolutely determined to battle inflation for our customers.
“Our focus on value has never been greater and we have spent over £560 million keeping our prices low over the last two years. As a result, we are now the best value compared to our competitors that we have been in many years and we are delivering improved market share performance in Sainsbury’s and Argos.”
Roberts strived that Sainsbury’s was “doing everything possible” to minimise price rises amid soaring inflation and said it was “inflating behind our competitors”, at “less than half the headline rate” seen in the ONS’ food inflation figures, which rose to 19.2% in March.
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It is set to expand one of its new price initiatives, Nectar Prices, which launched earlier this month.
Roberts said the grocer saw the opportunity to go “a lot further and faster” with Nectar Prices, which offers its loyalty scheme members prices up to 30% to 50% cheaper on branded goods, similar to Tesco’s Clubcard Prices.
This includes expanding the products covered by the loyalty scheme to “a wider part of the store” and bringing it online.
“That’s really important because there’s lots of big basket shopping online,” he said.
However, it has no plans to extend Nectar Prices into its convenience stores.
Sainsbury’s investment in price is paying off with its price index against Aldi soaring 1,610 basis points over the past two years.
Roberts said:”We’re seeing value perception improving. We’re seeing more customers coming back to shop with us and we’re seeing much less switching to the limited choice supermarkets than our direct competitors.”
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