Asda is to launch a premium homewares line that it claims will be up to 30% cheaper than the typical high street equivalent as it seeks to take further advantage of the buying power of parent Walmart.
The range, Elegant Living, includes bedding, bath, cooking and dining products, which have all been jointly sourced with Walmart. It will launch in stores from March 5.
The launch comes as Asda revealed like-for-like sales were up 1.6% in its fourth quarter, which chief executive Andy Clarke said showed the grocer had “returned to market outperformance”.
Elegant Living includes 100% Egyptian cotton towels, cotton bedding and stainless steel pans.
Clarke said: “We’re working very hard in bringing together our buying operations with our parent so that we can get even better prices for our customers. And not only is the price low on the new range, the quality is excellent.”
Clarke said that Asda’s performance was partly due to the success of the Asda Price Guarantee, which was relaunched in January promising that products will be 10% cheaper than rivals’. He said: “The Asda Price Guarantee is a game-changer and, since the start of the year, 800,000 people have taken advantage of it.”
He added that the relaunch of Asda’s mid-tier brand to Chosen By You had been “successful in terms of sales and also changing perceptions on quality”.
Since the relaunch in October, sales of Chosen By You bakery products have risen by 6%, ready meals by 11% and pies 8%.
Clarke warned that consumer confidence has taken a turn for the worse since the start of the year. He said shoppers have been buying more Lottery scratchcards and shopping weekly only for what they need - signs that they are worried about money.
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