The Co-operative has announced plans to invest £125 million to reduce the prices of fresh fruit and vegetables across their 2,800 stores.
The retailer is in a price war with discount retailers Lidl and Aldi, as well as the ‘big four’ supermarkets. In an effort to stay afloat they will soon offer shoppers fruit and veg at “cheap and cheerful prices”.
Fresh produce prices will fall by as much as 50% and a new promotion, “fresh three” will see customers able to buy a collection of fruit and vegetables for just 39p.
The Co-operative Group is Britain’s fifth largest food retailer but it’s slowly losing market share as it closes underperforming stores though Tesco and Sainsbury’s open additional convenience stores.
Steve Murrells, Retail chief executive at Co-operative, said: “Consumers are shopping differently, buying little, more frequently and, increasingly swapping the weekly shop for purchasing what they need, when they need it.
Food retailing remains highly competitive and we have responded to provide customers with great prices and fresh, quality produce at each of our stores. This makes our price investment the biggest by a convenience retailer, providing consumers across the length and breadth of the UK with lower priced produce and helping them to keep shopping in their neighbourhood.”
