WAITROSE has announced £30 million (S$51 million) worth of price cuts as the upmarket British grocer tries to win back shoppers it lost during the cost-of-living crisis.

The supermarket chain is lowering prices on more than 200 own-brand items from Wednesday (Feb 14) including meat, fruit and vegetables and said more cuts are to follow. Lamb shanks are now 16 per cent cheaper while the cost of chicken goujons is down 10 per cent.

Waitrose also lowered prices last year as food inflation started to ease in the UK, yet has struggled to keep up in Britain’s fiercely competitive grocery market. Waitrose sales rose 3.5 per cent versus a year earlier in January, compared with 7 per cent growth at Aldi, 8 per cent at J Sainsbury and almost 12 per cent at Lidl, according to data from Kantar.

At the higher end of the market, Marks & Spencer Group has also been lowering prices and investing in stores, putting more pressure on Waitrose in the battle for affluent shoppers. M&S’s market share grew to the same level as Waitrose at 3.8 per cent last month, according to retail data firm NIQ.

Owned by embattled department store chain John Lewis Partnership, Waitrose has received less investment than some other supermarket chains. However, the company raised £125 million from a sale and leaseback on 11 Waitrose stores late last year with the proceeds expected to go towards making the grocer more competitive.

In the last two years, the chain suffered a problematic roll-out of a new tech system, leading to gaps on shelves, while a fire at a depot also caused supply problems.

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Staff-owned

John Lewis is trying to turn around the fortunes of all its operations, after reporting a first-half loss of £56 million in September and failing to pay bonuses to staff – who co-own the business – twice in three years.

The retailer is considering plans to cut 11,000 jobs in the next five years through redundancies and by not replacing departing staff, according to a recent report by the Guardian newspaper. John Lewis also recently told staff it will halve redundancy payouts, other reports said.

The partnership will publish its full-year results on Mar 14. BLOOMBERG