Tesco hopes to steal a march on one of its supermarket rivals, announcing that it will accept Sainsbury’s Brand Match money-off vouchers until 30 June - two months after the promotion is due to end.
Sainsbury’s announced earlier last week that it was ditching its Brand Match promotion, under which gives vouchers to shoppers if they could have bought branded goods cheaper at Asda.
The scheme, which was introduced in 2011, will end soon, with the last vouchers given out on 26 April.
Customers already holding vouchers and those who receive them over the next fortnight will have two weeks to redeem them at the company’s stores.
Sainsbury’s said it was bringing the promotion to an end because its customers had said that “having lower regular prices across the store is more important than Brand Match”.
Now Tesco has announceed that from 11 April, its customers will be able to use Brand Match coupons to get money off their Tesco shopping.
Matt Davies, Tesco’s UK chief executive, said: “This is a little help for Sainsbury’s customers from us at Tesco … It also provides the opportunity for Sainsbury’s customers to experience Tesco’s Brand Guarantee, which we launched in October and has been universally welcomed by our customers.”
Brand Match vouchers will be accepted in-store at Tesco Extra, Superstore and Metro outlets, subject to a limit of one per customer per transaction. Some exclusions apply, including fuel, tobacco or tobacco-related products.
The move by Sainsbury’s reflects the fact that many shoppers have switched to buying little and often, rather than doing one big weekly shop, so fewer baskets contain the 10 items, including at least one branded product, needed to qualify for Brand Match.
Sainsbury’s was criticised in September 2014, when it stopped handing out Brand Match vouchers if customers could buy branded goods cheaper at Tesco.
For its part, Tesco said its Brand Guarantee offered an immediate price match at the tills, without the need for paper coupons. It “ensures customers will never pay more for their branded shop when they buy 10 or more different products, compared with Asda, Morrisons or Sainsbury’s”, the company said.
