British grocer Sainsbury's said today that from next week it will only benchmark prices with Wal-Mart's Asda, no longer including troubled market leader Tesco in its price comparison scheme.
Sainsbury's "Brand Match" programme tots up prices of comparable brands in shoppers' trollies. If shoppers could have paid less at Asda they receive a coupon for the difference.
A spokeswoman for Sainsbury's said the move reflected customer research which showed that "Asda is seen as the benchmark on price."
The move forms part of a prices strategy from Sainsbury's that has seen it lower the regular prices of products across its grocery business.
The spokeswoman said Sainsbury's had lowered base prices on about 1,200 lines over the last 18 months. She declined to say what the firm's total investment in prices had been over that period.
Sainsbury's, which is battling with Asda to be Britain's second biggest grocer, saw a nine-year run of quarterly sales growth come to an end in the fourth quarter of its 2013-14 financial year and posted another quarterly decline in sales in the first quarter of its 2014-15 year.
Second quarter sales data will be published on October 1, the first sales numbers to be presented by new chief executive Mike Coupe, who succeeded Justin King in July.
Industry data published earlier this week showed Sainsbury's sales fell 1.8% in the 12 weeks to September 14 in an overall grocery market growing at its slowest rate for more than 20 years.
On Monday, Tesco was rocked by an accounting scandal, sending its shares sliding.
