Sainsbury’s ditches Brand Match scheme for lower everyday pricing

The supermarket giant said the move is designed to reassure customers of guaranteed good value, following research that showed lower regular prices mattered more to customers.

Sainsbury’s said the scheme would give customers more flexibility to buy “what they want, when they want it, at great price with no restrictions”.

Money from the Brand Match scheme will be invested to lower the price of basket staples that customers buy week after week, including bread, cheese, chicken, fresh produce and household cleaning items.

Sainsbury’s marketing director Sarah Warby said: “We know that customers like the changes we’ve already made to the way we price our products because it fits in with the way people shop now.

“Our customers are shopping more frequently across multiple channels and they want to be able to buy the products they love, in the quantities they need, safe in the knowledge that they are getting great value for money. Our simpler, clearer pricing lets them do just that.”

The supermarket will issue its last Brand Match coupons on April 26, but insisted it will continue to monitor the prices of branded products in order to remain competitive.

The Brand Match scheme requires shoppers to purchase 10 or more products, including at least one comparable branded item, to qualify for discounts.

Sainsbury’s compares the prices of branded goods to those at Asda and gives customers vouchers to spend on their next shop if its big four rival worked out cheaper.

The grocer insisted that “the majority” of qualifying branded shops were now “the same price or cheaper” than Asda following an ongoing programme of price investment.

Sainsbury’s affirmed its commitment to every day low prices back in September 2014 and earlier this year revealed that it was phasing out multi-buys in favour of regular, lower prices.

As revealed by Retail Week, its big four rival Tesco unveiled its Brand Guarantee scheme last October, which offers customers purchasing 10 or more items instant discounts at the till if their branded shop would have been cheaper at Sainsbury’s, Asda or Morrisons.

The Bradford-based grocer has scrapped its Match & More scheme in favour of a loyatly-based initiative and its boss David Potts has argued price matching ”isn’t really the right approach.”