A price war is predicted to break out among Dutch supermarket retailers Albert Heijn, Laurus, Dirk van den Broek and Ahold after Albert Heijn started lowering its prices last week.
Albert Heijn started to decrease the prices of around 300 products last week, and said it would expand the assortment of its cheapest brand Euroshopper to 350 articles from 235.
Supermarket group Laurus, which operates the Edah, Super de Boer and Konmar, denied that it was reducing prices in response to the actions of Albert Heijn, reported the Dutch News Digest.
Supermarket chain C1000 of Ahold subsidiary Schuitema has reduced prices of several products as a result of Albert Heijn’s reductions, while Dirk van den Broek upped its advertising as a result.
Joop Holla, of marketing research firm GfK, says this strong price competition differs from the annual price cuts in January following the expensive month of December and is predicting a price war between supermarkets, reported Dow Jones News.
