Tesco chief executive Ken Murphy admitted the grocery giant is feeling increased competition pressures from its rivals following criticism of a “phoney” price war.

The supermarket boss noted that the retailer’s competitors had “upped their game” since Asda signalled the start of a potential price war earlier this year.

“You’re not necessarily seeing massive movements and relative competitiveness, but everyone has upped their game a notch,” Murphy said.

“Broadly, it’s been a rational intensification, in the sense that everybody is staying toe-to-toe with each other.”

His comments come as Tesco saw a 5.1% increase in like-for-likes to £12.3bn in the 13 weeks to 24 May, driven by a 5.9% rise in food sales.

Murphy said the trading update shows the grocery giant has responded “very effectively” to the increased competition.

“Importantly, we’ve done so without dropping the ball on quality and innovation on the shopping trip and that really is what has underpinned our success,” he added.

Murphy’s comments are a different tone to that of Aldi’s UK boss Giles Hurley who said last month that he had seen little evidence of increased competition.

“I’d probably be pretty dismissive and describe it as a phoney war. We’re not seeing particularly aggressive moves from competition,” Hurley told The Times.

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