Morrisons chief executive Dalton Philips said Sainsbury’s exclusion of his business from its Brand Match programme is testament to Morrisons’ price-competitiveness.

Sainsbury’s has explicitly targeted Asda and Tesco with Brand Match, but said Morrisons is not included because of its lack of online pricing information.

But, speaking on the sidelines of the IGD Convention and as Kantar data revealed an eighth month of growth for Morrisons, Philips said: “They can’t get near us. It’s good, honest pricing at the till.”

“Why are they targeting Tesco and Asda, not us? Our base pricing is fantastic.”

Philips told the conference that retailers must adjust to cater for the new ‘professional shopper’ that has emerged from the downturn.

He said the consumer now has four characteristics; spending to budget; eating in not out; ‘shouting about bargains’ and investing time in saving money.

He said the phenomenon is here to stay and that retailers that can make “simple breakthroughs” would be the winners.

“It’s down to relevance and affordability,” he said. “Those are the two breakthroughs we need to focus on.”

He cited the example of Morrisons’ new convenience store model as an example of relevance and said: “Convenience is not a breakthrough. The breakthrough happens with the offer you put in it.”

He said that 51% of shoppers check the price of everything they put in their baskets but many retailers are out of tune with the mood.

He polled the audience on the price of  a bag of sugar – something he said shoppers would know  - but only 20% of the audience answered correctly.“Look how far we’re off,” he warned.

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