Two more Tesco stores see price cuts initiative

TWO further Tesco Ireland stores – at Bettystown in Co Louth and Ballinasloe in Co Galway – will come in line with the company’s ongoing re-pricing initiative as of today.

Last month, the supermarket giant announced price reductions across 12,000 of its products in eleven of its stores along the border, in a bid to stop shoppers travelling to the North in order to avail of cheaper prices, made possible due to the much lower VAT rate in Britain and the North.

The price cuts which were implemented in the border counties, amounted to as much as 22% in most cases.

The company employs about 12,500 people and operates nearly 120 supermarkets in the Republic.

At the time, Tesco Ireland said it would be rolling out its re-pricing policy, on a phased basis, across its portfolio of stores in the Republic. This policy continued with price drops in some of its stores in Galway and Mayo last week.

A spokesperson for the company said the policy would continue past today’s moves, but declined to comment on the next stores to be highlighted, on competitive grounds.

Ireland didn’t feature in the group’s first quarter trading update published yesterday which showed Tesco enjoyed year-on-year growth of 12.6% in group sales – excluding petrol.