STORE WARS! Coles takes discounts fight to rival Woolworths with 12-week winter savings campaign

Coles is taking the fight for shoppers’ stretched budgets back to rival Woolworths with a new winter savings campaign that looks set to escalate the supermarket store wars.

The launch comes just weeks after Woolworths announced it would slash prices on hundreds of popular grocery items in a major cost-of-living move aimed at cutting into Coles’ market.

On May 14 it introduce a long-term campaign to lower shelf prices on almost 400 essential products both in-store and online, promising a family spending $150 on their weekly shop was likely to save about $15 each week when purchasing from the discounted range.

Coles will respond to the price challenge on Monday when it will unveil plans to cut prices on 307 products under its Down Down promotion for 12 weeks across meat, bakery, dairy and pantry staples, with average savings of 19 per cent. The products includes Coles-branded lamb, pork, beef and chicken, Chobani and Danone yoghurts, Charlotte’s Bakery pies, Kleenex tissues and Dove conditioner.

The discounts, which the grocer says adds to more than 200 products already on Down Down prices, start from Wednesday.

It will sweeten the deal to lure shoppers with its first Flybuys Activate Bonus Campaign that will give customers 10 times the points on more than 800 products in June, along with a range of cross savings promotions through its network of Liquorland stores.

Coles chief commercial officer Anna Croft said the savings would help Australians find more value on their favourite products.

“This winter we’re investing in bringing prices down to deliver immediate relief at the checkout to our customers,” Ms Croft said.

“Whether it’s a leg of lamb roasting in the oven, a freezer full of batch-cooked meals, or a simple stir-fry to feed hungry mouths, Coles is helping households make meals they love at lowered prices.”

The campaign aims to build on a continued preference for home cooking over dining out as consumers show few signs that recent interest rate cuts by the Reserve Bank have given them greater confidence to loosen the purse strings.

Coles will be hoping it also arrests a fall in the amount shoppers are spending on their weekly shop, a pattern experienced by both supermarket giants

While delivering a 3.4 per cent jump in group-wide revenue to $10.4 billion for the March quarter in April, Coles chief executive Leah Weckert noted cash-strapped customers were cutting back on treats and buying less meat and bottled water.

“Our most popular and well-performing specials every week would be the ones that are the 40 and 50 per cent off,” she said.

“We are very aware that it’s about two thirds of customers that are still battling to balance the household budget each week . . . and it’s those customers that are really changing their behaviour.”

Woolworths reported a similar rise in group-wide sales for the quarter but said cost-of-living pressures remained front of mind for shoppers.

“We’re certainly seeing customers really resonate with those (promotions) that are deeper, so over the 40 per cent off mark is particularly popular,” chief executive Amanda Bardwell said at the time.

Excluding fruit and vegetables and tobacco, average prices across its store network declined by 1.2 per cent in the first three months of 2025. But higher meat prices offset falls in the cost of long life categories such as pantry, snacking, freezer and everyday needs.

Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics last week showed inflation in the year to the end of April remained flat at 2.4 per cent but core inflation — which strips out price volatility — ticked up from 2.7 per cent to 2.8 per cent.

The price of food and non-alcoholic beverages dipped in the 12 months to April to 3.1 per cent — down from 3.4 per in March — helped by a big fall in the cost of meat and seafood. Fruit and vegetable prices also dropped sharply in the month.