Asda’s sales performance in the four weeks to May 16 has shown signs of picking up, assisted by the retailer’s recently-launched Asda Price Guarantee.

In the four-week Kantar Worldpanel figures, Asda matched Tesco for growth, reporting a sales increase of 3.4%.

Jeffries International equity analyst James Grzinic said its Price Guarantee “may be helping” and that the figures suggested Asda was now “beating Tesco on like-for-like growth”.

Bernstein analyst Christopher Hogbin said the Price Guarantee launch “potentially helped drive traffic in the second half of the period” and its push to refocus on its low pricing “may actually help wean the UK grocery industry off current high level of promotions”.

However, in the 12 weeks to May 16, Asda’s market share still dipped from 16.9% to 16.8%.

Asda has been vocal in its opposition to launching a loyalty card, but this week rival Sainsbury’s will launch its biggest ever Nectar points giveaway, with a triple points offer from today (Friday) until Monday, May 31.

The grocer said that shoppers would be awarded up to one billion Nectar points in the giveaway, equivalent to about £5m.
This is the first time the grocer has offered triple points, and it reignites the competition between those grocers with loyalty schemes and those, like Asda, without.

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