Woolworths steps up supermarket price wars by cutting prices on more than 400 products for autumn

Woolworths is stepping up the supermarket discount price wars, a day after rival Coles reported its sales since the start of the year had been stronger.

Woolworths on Wednesday announced a new autumn specials campaign, boasting prices had been dropped on more than 400 items by an average of 18 per cent.

The supermarket giant says it is working to help customers spend less when they shop — a message it has been driving since spring last year when it launched a “spend less this spring” campaign and rolled out online tools including filtering for best unit prices. Coles announced a similar feature on Tuesday.

Woolworths and Coles have faced increasing scrutiny over their pricing practices over the past year to 18 months as high inflation has persisted.

A Senate inquiry into supermarket prices kicks off public hearings next week in Hobart, while competition watchdog the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has started probing prices, former government minister Craig Emerson is examining the grocery code of conduct and the Government has funded consumer group Choice to start regular price reports.

Woolworths’ latest campaign prominently features meat, with roast pork leg down from $11 per kilo to $9/kg, while a kilo of diced chicken breast falls from $15.50 to $13 and 500 grams of beef stir fry falls from $12 to $10.

“We know our customers are looking for lower prices and offers to help them manage their budgets, and we want to help them to spend less when they shop with us,” Woolworths supermarkets chief commercial officer Paul Harker said.

“This is on top of our 6000 weekly specials and low price program. Customers can also enjoy great value in store with our wide range of own brand products, which are 30 per cent less on average compared to similar brands.”

Other items to feature in the campaign are 1.5kg bags of mashing potatoes, down from $7.50 to $4.50, or 2kg of Dutch cream or royal blue washed potatoes to $4.50 in Tasmania and WA, respectively, as well as spring onions down to $2.50 from $2.80, boneless leg ham at in-store delis down from $31/kg to $26/kg, as well as household cleaning products and detergents.

The campaign for autumn runs until May 28.

Coles increased its sales in the first eight weeks of this year by 4.9 per cent, compared to Woolworths in the first seven weeks by 1.5 per cent.

Woolworths says 96 per cent of its fresh fruit and vegetables and 100 per cent of its own brand fresh meat, chicken, eggs and milk come from Australia.

Coles boss Leah Weckert told The West Australian on Tuesday that WA customers had responded strongly to its recent changes to own-brand in-store red meat and poultry, which is now all sourced locally from producers and suppliers in WA.

Both major supermarkets support the popular “buy west, eat best” marketing campaign that highlights and labels locally-produced food.

The latest Woolworths campaign kicks off as the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported fresh food — particularly meat and vegetables and fruit — was now in deflation — meaning prices are lower than they were a year ago, with experts expecting that trajectory to continue.