Sainsbury’s cuts price of food essentials amid pressure to lower costs - list of reductions

Sainsbury’s is cutting the price of cupboard essentials in a move to pass on lower wholesale costs to shoppers.

The supermarket chain said it will invest £15 million of price cuts on its own brand items, including staples such as corn flakes, jams, pasta, rice and runny honey.

Sainsbury’s also said it will reduce the price of its Freefrom pasta and will offer it at the same price as standard pasta as part of the cuts. It claims to be the only supermarket to offer the price match.

The new lower prices will come into effect in Sainsbury’s stores nationwide and online from Tuesday (27 June). In addition, from Monday (26 June) all Sainsbury’s “happier and healthier” whole chicken breast fillets will be price-matched to Aldi for the first time.

The retailer has also pledged to continue cutting prices on essential products throughout the summer as supermarkets face increasing pressure to hand down savings on wholesale items to consumers, following months of punishing food price inflation.

Examples of Sainsbury’s latest reductions include:

• Sainsbury’s 500g pack of corn flakes - down from 85p to 69p
• Sainsbury’s 1kg spaghetti - down from £1.65 to £1.39
• Sainsbury’s 1kg basmati rice - down from £2.10 to £1.75
• Sainsbury’s jar of strawberry jam - down from £1.15 to 99p
• Sainsbury’s 300g pack of chicken breasts - down from £2.50 to £2.29
• Sainsbury’s 1.6kg pack of chicken breasts - down from £9.65 to £9.59
• Sainsbury’s 640g of mini chicken fillets - down from £4.95 to £4.43

Sainsbury’s has already recently reduced the price of essentials such as bread and butter, milk, tuna and toilet rolls, with other rivals making similar moves to pass on cuts to customers.

It comes after the Bank of England last week suggested some retailers are hiking prices or failing to pass on lower costs to shoppers as a way of increasing profit margins at a time of stubborn inflation.

Rhian Bartlett, food commercial director at Sainsbury’s, said: “As the cost-of-living challenges continue, we remain relentlessly focused on lowering prices on the essential products that make the biggest difference to our customers. These latest price cuts will help reassure customers that we will continue to pass on savings as soon as we see the wholesale price of food fall.”

Ms Bartlett is among food bosses who will appear in front of the Business and Trade Committee on Tuesday to discuss food price inflation.

Meanwhile, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is due to meet the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and the watchdogs for the energy, water and communications sectors on Wednesday (28 June) to ask whether there is a profiteering problem in their sectors and what is being done about it.

Mr Hunt also confirmed that ministers are talking to the food industry about “potential measures to ease the pressure on consumers.

Official figures last week showed that food inflation slowed from 19.1% in April to 18.4% in May after hitting a 45-year high in March. Tesco chief executive Ken Murphy recently said food inflation has passed its peak, but consumers are still seeing painful rises in their weekly shop.