Troubled group’s shops to spend £100m in cutting prices of goods
THE CO-OPERATIVE group became the latest supermarket chain to slash its prices yesterday, as it fights back against growing competition in the convenience sector.
The retailer, which admitted earlier this year to years of underinvestment, is spending £100m this year in cutting prices of every day essential products such as bread, milk and bananas.
It comes after Tesco dropped the price of more than 30 staples earlier this week.
Meanwhile the group’s energy supply arm, Co-operative Energy, bucked the trend of smaller suppliers lowering their tariffs and made a shock price rise announcement yesterday.
The firm is raising customers’ energy bills by £2.21 per month on 27 May, pushing the average bill up to £1,239 a year for cash customers and £1,176 for those opting for direct debit.
It blamed the increase on the government’s green levies and increased distribution costs.