J Sainsbury PLC said it will invest £65mln into its pricing next month to ease the pressure on consumers, whose budgets are being squeezed by surging inflation.
The pricing pledge is part of a wider £500mln investment commitment.
The UK’s second-largest supermarket group said £60mln of September’s investment will go towards food prices, predominantly the Price Lock campaign which freezes the prices on a range of the most popular products, while a further £5m investment will be made in Argos and Habitat furniture lines.
The group will fix the prices of around 2,000 food products and household items for at least eight weeks, including a number of own label lines.
The news came after the British Retail Consortium (BRC) revealed that UK food inflation jumped to 9.3% in August from 7% in July.
“We know how tough this ‘back to school’ season is going to be for our customers,” said Simon Roberts, Sainsbury’s chief executive.
“With families across the country facing big increases in their energy bills, the situation is serious and our most important job at Sainsbury’s is to help our customers in every way we can.
“We have made huge strides to lower prices since we launched our new plan but we are committed to going further.
“These are difficult times and all of us at Sainsbury’s are standing with our customers to ease the financial pressure they face.”
Funding will also go towards Sainsbury’s price match campaign against rival Aldi, the discount supermarket group, which has seen demand jump as a result of rocketing inflation and energy prices putting pressure on household spending.