Price war imminent among UK supermarkets, analysts warn
03 May 2014
Analysts have warned of an imminent price war among the UK's big four supermarkets leading to job losses across the sector.
A price war was sparked off this week, as Bradford-based Morrisons announced it would slash the price of 1,200 products by up to 60 per cent.
The Yorkshire Post quoted Redmayne-Bentley investment manager David Battersby as saying it was inevitable there would be job cuts among the big four.
He said jobs would have to go, especially where roles could be automated. He added, the supermarkets would take human jobs out of the equation where they could.
He added a price war would be good for consumers, but not if one was relying on a job with a supermarket.
Job losses were inevitable, with cuts already taking place at Tesco and Asda, the report quoted an industry expert as saying. He added it was inevitably going to happen at Sainsbury's next.
Asda had already announced plans for axing over 200 managers while Tesco was reportedly looking at scrapping middle management roles and team leader positions as more customers switched to online shopping.
The big four, Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury's and Morrisons between them, employ close to a million people.
Meanwhile upmarket British grocer Waitrose is trying to address the impact of the rapid rise of discount chains Aldi and Lidl, as it was forced to respond to price cuts taken by the country's big four supermarkets to combat them, it said yesterday.
British consumers have been shopping around to save money and are keeping away from big weekly shops and buying little and often in local convenience stores or online.
The grocery market had undergone a polarisation with the big four - market leader Tesco, Sainsbury's, Wal-Mart's Asda and Morrisons, getting squeezed between German discounters Aldi and Lidl and upmarket players Waitrose and Marks & Spencer.
According to Waitrose managing director Mark Price, the company was not losing any of its gold customers to Aldi or Lidl, Reuters reported.
Price said it was more about how the company responded to the pricing adopted by Sainsbury's and Tesco.
