Supermarket group Asda has said that it would invest more than £73 million to keep the prices of essential items low this year.
Asda, owned since February last year by brothers Mohsin and Zuber Issa whose business began in Bury and private equity company TDR Capital, said it has cut the prices of over 100 items and “locked in” those prices until the end of 2022.
It has also confirmed to 120,000 hourly paid shop floor colleagues that their pay will increase to £10.10 per hour from July.
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. Meanwhile, Asda’s latest Income Tracker has recorded its biggest ever drop in disposable income in March shows 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 reduce by 12% and include staples such as John West tuna, dropping by 14% from £3.50 to £3, or 500g of Asda easy cook rice which has dropped by 25% down to 75p from £1.
Mohsin Issa, Co-owner of Asda 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.”
