Asda ditches Aldi and Lidl price match promise just a year after launch
Asda has axed its price-matching scheme with Aldi and Lidl in a bid to stop “dancing to the tune of the discounters”, according to reports.
The Leeds-based firm, which in January 2024 became the first of the UK’s ‘big four’ to offer the scheme, said it wanted to focus on “its own great Asda prices, not competitor comparisons” in 2025, according to trade publication The Grocer.
It cut prices by an average of 17 per cent on more than 280 items to get its prices in line with German discounters, which have shaken up the UK’s grocery market with ultra-low competitive prices.
Asda will replace the scheme with a wider “Rollback” price cuts campaign, it said.
“We’re focused on our own great ‘Asda Prices’ not competitor comparisons. We’ve started 2025 as we mean to go on by cutting prices on thousands of products and there’s much more to come with Rollback,” a spokesperson said.
It is the latest move by Asda’s new chair, Allen Leighton, to return to business to its former glory after multiple years of declining market share.
The grocer saw sales drop 5.8 per cent In the final three months of 2024, according to Kantar.
The business faced a host of problems – internal and external – last year. Its steadily declining market share, continued industrial action and a terribly expensive IT project (to the tune of half a billion) all made headlines, while the company continued to look to cut costs in an attempt to deal with heavy post-takeover debt.
In November 2024, Asda announced job cuts and asked its staff to return to the office three days a week.
Lidl’s social media responded to the change on social media, writing “POV: You get dumped over text Asda” in the comments of a now-deleted post, according to The Daily Record.
Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Morrison’s will continue to offer price-matching on a selection of their products.