Price wars force supermarket sales below £100bn

THE ongoing price war with discounters has pushed supermarket sales below the £100bn mark for the first time in six years.

Revenues for the major supermarkets dropped 3.1% to £99bn in the last quarter said The Telegraph, reporting on Share Centre statistics.

The battle with European discounters Lidl and Aldi has forced Britain’s supermarkets to push down prices in an effort to retain customers.

Bradford-based Morrisons announced that it had renegotiated its Ocado contract last week as it seeks to improve its online delivery services. It also struck a deal with Amazon earlier in the year making Morrisons products available on the retail giant’s platform and announced it would be cutting the prices of more than 1,000 products in store in an attempt to reassure customers following the Brexit decision.

Asda has also moved to the forefront of the price battle. Since it was announced that global Walmart executive Sean Clarke would be replacing incumbent chief executive Andy Clarke, the US-owned supermarket has emphasised sales volume over profitability, indicating further price cuts to come.