Aldi ups pressure on UK rivals with more price cuts

LONDON, Feb 12 (Reuters) - Discount supermarket Aldi has increased the pressure on bigger rivals in Britain with a new wave of price reductions.

The firm said on Friday the price cuts on lines including fresh meat, fresh fruit and vegetables were a response to reductions announced last month by Morrisons, Britain's No. 4 supermarket, which in turn followed cuts by Wal-Mart's Asda, the No. 3 player.

A supermarket price war is regularly cited in official data as a factor bearing down on UK inflation.

Aldi did not disclose how much it was spending on the latest reductions but said they would be backed up with a major advertising campaign.

Asda and Morrisons, along with other "big four" rivals, market leader Tesco (Hanover: TCO.HA - news) and No. 2 Sainsbury (Amsterdam: SJ6.AS - news) 's, have been cutting prices to try to narrow the gap with Aldi and fellow German discounter Lidl, which have been winning market share.

On Thursday, Sainsbury's said it would phase out multi-buy promotions across its grocery business by August, saying customers no longer appreciate them. (Reporting by James Davey; Editing by Mark Potter)