Sainsbury’s cuts cost of food staples to reflect falling prices

Supermarket Sainsbury’s has revealed falling annual profits as it took a hit from soaring costs and held back price rises for shoppers, but said it was “determined to battle inflation for our customers”. (PA Wire)

Sainsbury’s has cut the price of some of its lines of bread and butter in response to falling commodity prices.

The UK’s second-biggest supermarket chain has lowered the price of its own-brand 250g salted and unsalted butter by 5% to £1.89.

It is also cutting the price of its 800g Soft White Medium, Wholemeal Medium, Wholemeal Thick and Toastie White loaves of bread by 11% to 75p.

The grocer said it was able to lower some prices due to commodity prices for wheat and butter beginning to fall.

Rhian Bartlett, food commercial director at Sainsbury’s, said: “We have been battling hard to beat inflation and whenever we are paying less for the products we buy from our suppliers, we will pass those savings on to customers.

“As we see the commodity prices starting to fall for wheat and butter, we’re able to lower our prices on two of the products people buy most often, bread and butter.

“We are committed to offering our customers the best value possible so they can be confident that they are getting a great deal on their everyday essentials when they shop with us.”

It comes after UK Consumer Prices Index (CPI) inflation peaked at 11.1% late last year and food prices continued to soar.

Grocery inflation leapt by more than 19% in March compared with a year ago, as energy and supply chain costs were passed on to shoppers.

Sainsbury’s latest price cuts follow it and Tesco cutting the price of milk by at least 5p, followed by Aldi, Lidl and Asda.

Sainsbury’s said its price drop would not have an impact on how much it paid farmers.