One of the largest supermarket groups in Ireland will reduce the price of its own label, two litre fresh milk by 10 cent from Monday (July 3).
Tesco Ireland, which has currently 22.6% of the grocery market in Ireland, said today (Saturday, July 1) that from Monday its own brand two litre fresh milk will retail at €2.09 – down 10c from €2.19.
According to the supermarket group all of the fresh milk sold in Tesco Ireland “is 100% Irish, sourced from Irish farms”.
Joe Manning, commercial director, Tesco Ireland said, “With household budgets remaining under pressure we are committed to helping our customers, by keeping a laser focus on the cost of the weekly shop.
“We continue to work closely with our suppliers to pass on price cuts to our customers whenever we can.”
It is the third retailer in just 24 hours to confirm a 10 cent cut in the price of an own brand, two litre fresh milk product.
Lidl Ireland, which currently has 13.7% of the grocery market in Ireland, confirmed that from today the price of a 2 litre carton of fresh milk will fall in its stores from €2.19 to €2.09.
It claims this will result in “€3 million in savings” for consumers.
J.P. Scally, chief executive officer of Lidl Ireland and Northern Ireland said: “We have dropped the prices of hundreds of household staple items in recent weeks, and we will continue to drop prices on the items that matter most to our customers.
“We were the first retailer in Ireland to drop the price of milk in May.”
Meanwhile Aldi, which currently has 12.3% of the grocery market in Ireland, went even further than its competitors and confirmed today that it will also reduce the retail prices of all its own-brand milk products by an average of 10 cents.
According to the supermarket group it is the second cut to the retail price of milk in recent weeks.
Niall O’Connor, group managing director, Aldi Ireland said: “We review the market on a daily basis to ensure we remain the best value retailer. Our real-time focus means we can respond quickly.’’
“The economic environment remains challenging, and we will continue with our multi-dimensional response, which involves shielding customers from inflation as much as possible, working with suppliers, ensuring we always have a discount versus the more expensive supermarkets, and monitoring the market in real time”.
But the Irish Farmers’ Association has reacted with dismay to the latest price cuts by major supermarket groups and cautioned that consumer milk price cuts are “unsustainable”.
The IFA has warned that farmers could go out of business if supermarkets launch a milk price war.