Supermarket giants Lidl and Aldi have hit back at Tesco after the latter announced price drops on Thursday.
Supermarket chain Lidl, which prides itself on good deals and affordable prices, was first to respond to rival store Tesco - maintaining they are still the cheaper option.
On Thursday, Tesco Ireland announced a campaign of price cuts for its customers, with more than 700 products to have costs cut.
It is the latest move in an ongoing battle of price drops between various supermarkets operating out of Ireland, with Aldi and Tesco both recently announcing price drops in bread and dairy products.
READ MORE: Tesco Ireland slashes price on 700 products in 'turning point' for shoppers in Ireland
As a result of the new price drop by the UK chain, customers who conduct their weekly shopping will now get some deals on a wide range of Tesco's own-brand products and popular brands, with an average price decrease of 10 per cent.
However, despite the decrease, Lidl maintains that it is “significantly cheaper than Tesco”.
In a statement, Lidl said: “At Lidl, we’ve always welcomed full transparency on pricing and became the first Irish retailer to drop the price of milk at the beginning of May.
“As the leading discount retailer in the country, offering the best prices on the market is daily business for Lidl.
“Since then, we’ve continued to drop the prices of more than 100 products in our range as a direct result of the reduction in the cost of production for these items.
“We carry out weekly price checks on Lidl products versus competitors and we are confident that we will continue to be significantly cheaper than other retailers with the lowest prices consistently available across all of our 178 Lidl stores in the Republic of Ireland.
“Having reviewed Tesco’s recent price drops announced this morning, we can confirm that Lidl continues to be significantly cheaper than Tesco, maintaining our position as Ireland’s best value retailer and offering unbeatable prices on staple items that form our customer's weekly shop.”
Meanwhile, Aldi also dismissed Tesco’s price slashing, insisting they too already offer better value here than their UK-based rival.
Niall O’Connor, Group Managing Director, Aldi Ireland said: "Our prices are already lower on comparable products.
“We consistently set the benchmark for low prices and value in the market.
“We know that other retailers try to match what we do but the simple fact is that we won’t be beaten on price, on this, or any day.
“We’ll continue to monitor prices and the market to ensure that we always have a discount versus the more expensive full price supermarkets, whether on a basket of goods or a full weekly shop and especially on our own label range, which accounts for 95% of our products.”
“That’s our promise to customers, and it will not change.”
Sinn Féin trade spokeswoman, Louise O’Reilly, said the price drops prove there was profiteering going on all along.
She said: “The reduction in the price of food items by Tesco shows there has always been scope for supermarkets to reduce the cost of items, but not the will.
“Price reductions are to be welcomed, but the newfound will of supermarkets to reduce food price items has been driven by public pressure.
“At the beginning of March, the European Central Bank highlighted that corporate profiteering was contributing to price rises as firms used inflation as an excuse to increase profit margins.
“This is an unacceptable situation which needs to be gotten to the bottom of, and it is only through transparency this can be achieved.
“It is essential that we know where profiteering is happening in order to devise appropriate and meaningful solutions that will benefit consumers without having a destabilising effect.”
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