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In the United Kingdom, it is common practice for retailers to have their own value brand in an effort to compete on price. These brands have become more popular in the UK with shoppers since the Great Recession caused food prices to rise. [1]
Tesco's value brand was originally launched in 1993 as Tesco Value, with distinctive blue-and-white striped packaging. [2] In April 2012 the range was rebranded as Everyday Value, with new packaging and a revised product range which omitted artificial colours and flavours. The original Tesco Value brand had been launched in the midst of a supermarket price war, [3] and targeted a low price point, with cans of beans costing 3p a can [2] and loaves of bread for 7p. [2]
In 2018 Tesco began phasing out Everyday Value in favour of "tertiary brands" such as "Ms Molly's", "Hearty Food Co." and "Stockwell & Co.", in effect imitating what Aldi and Lidl do and reviving a previous attempt in 2009 known as 'Discount Brands at Tesco'. [4]
In 2023 Tesco released a clothing range featuring the original Tesco Value branding.
Brands used:
Just Essentials by Asda, formerly Asda Smartprice, is a no-frills private label trade name. It can trace its origins to Asda's Farm Stores brand launched in the mid-1990s, which consisted of products that were offered at a lower price than the equivalent famous name brand product and Asda's own brand equivalent. The Farm Stores brand originally consisted of a small number of food only products, largely frozen such as frozen chips and a small range of ready meals: this range later expanded to include fresh food. Just Essentials by Asda products are almost always the lowest price option in a product category in Asda stores. Occasionally this difference is only a few pence; in others, however, it is a marked difference. For example, a box of Just Essentials Biological Washing Powder costs £2.30, while the equivalent Asda brand washing powder costs £5.00, and well known name brand alternatives can cost from £7.00 upwards (as of December 2022).
The Smartprice label was originally a food only brand; however, over the years it expanded to cover almost every product range in the store, including clothing and furnishings with the George Smart Price brand. Like early generic products in the US, some Smartprice products originally lacked what can be thought of as 'frills' in the modern brand name or supermarket own brand; for example, the Smartprice toothpaste had an old fashioned screw cap rather than the now more common flip cap, and the Smartprice range of crisps came in traditional clear plastic bags rather than the foil bags common to most name brand versions.
Asda's Smartprice logo and packaging has changed several times since its introduction. It was revised [5] in 2012 to match the branding of Walmart's Great Value line at the time, [6] but a further redesign in 2014 and 2017, removed the similarity in visual style. On 28 March 2022, Asda announced the Smartprice brand would be replaced by a new brand, Asda Just Essentials, commencing May 2022. The similarity between the new brand name and Waitrose's own budget brand, Essential Waitrose, launched in 2009, has led to Waitrose issuing a legal letter to Asda, raising trademark concerns although this was later dropped.
Sainsbury's Basics was an economy range of around 550 lines, [7] mainly food but also including other areas such as toiletries and stationery. The Basics range used minimal packaging with simple orange and white designs. Sainsbury's Local stores sold none or very few of these lines. Sainsbury's seeks to differentiate itself on its own label items on quality and many of the Basics products cost more than what may be considered the equivalent products at Asda, Tesco and Morrisons. This can range from price differences of 1p for Basics Sultanas to Basics Spaghetti tin, where Sainsbury's price was nearly twice that of Asda Smart Price (the weight of the Sainsbury's product is very slightly more and of better quality).
Sainsbury's first lower tier range was called Sainsbury's Economy, which was launched in the 1990s to rival Tesco Value; it was later renamed Sainsbury's Low Price, then Sainsbury's Basics. When Basics was first rolled out, the name of the product and slogan was in a handwritten orange typeface with a simple outline hand drawing of the product. They later used a thin sans serif typeface for the product name, while retaining the handwritten typeface for the slogan. The hand drawn graphic was removed in favour of a coloured simple graphic with considerably more detail.
Sainsbury's phased out the Basics brand in favour of using tertiary brands similar to Tesco. [8]
In May 2023 Sainsbury's moved all of its value range under the Stamford Street Co. brand. [9]
Everyday Essentials is a value brand by Aldi. It was going to be rolled out in June 2012, however it was put on hold after a source close to Aldi said that it looked dated against Tesco's Everyday Value brand, which at the time was being overhauled. [10]
Morrisons Savers, formerly M Savers, is an economy brand which sells items ranging from food and drink to toiletries. [11] This replaced 'Value' which in turn was a replacement for 'Bettabuy' and 'Farmer's Boy'. Morrisons, in some areas, is slowly adjusting its line of budget products from the aggregated "M Savers" brand to more discrete forms. For example, the company has utilised the "Greenside Deli" brand for its dairy products.
Simply is a brand used by Lidl in an attempt to compete with Aldi's Everyday Essentials. [12]
These value brands are not value brands as such but are competing with the big five's own-label products, i.e. Asda's "Chosen by You" or Sainsbury's "by Sainsbury's".
Departing from earlier practice, Waitrose rebranded their entry level range of products as Essential Waitrose. The marketing of essential Waitrose centres around the tagline "quality you'd expect at prices you wouldn't". 1,600 new and existing products have been rebranded with this name using simple white-based packaging. In keeping with the rebranding across the John Lewis Partnership, these are now branded Essential Waitrose & Partners .
In 2012, Marks and Spencer issued their value brand, Simply M&S, in response to Waitrose's Essential range. [13]
Many of the main convenience stores have an in-house value brand.
Heritage Value is the value brand of Nisa. [14] As a convenience store, prices tend to be considerably higher; a 29p pack of penne pasta in Lidl [12] will cost you £1.09 in Nisa. [14]
Daily Basics is a brand owned by the Irish retail group Musgrave Group, and is an in-house brand which is sold by SuperValu. As a convenience store, prices tend to be high, with a litre of orange juice costing 89p. [15]
S Budget is SPAR's value brand. It is an international value brand, and thus includes some products that in the UK are considered very unusual in a value brand such as polony chubb (slicing sausage). [16]
Honest Value is the Co-operative value brand which launched on 4 November 2020. It replaced the Simply Value brand first used by Somerfield and which was retained after Somerfield's acquisition but which was discontinued after 2016. (Simply Value had replaced the Co-operative's everyday brand).
It is not uncommon for wholesalers to have their own value brand to help independents compete on price.
Booker (owned by Tesco) owns value brand Happy Shopper but also sells Euroshopper products, which are produced by AMS Sourcing B.V. They are also sold in their symbol group stores Premier Stores, Londis and Budgens. [17]
Best-In Essentials, known previously as Best-In Economy [18] is the value brand of Bestway. Best In have recently overhauled their entire range. The Best In range was relaunched as Best One, with the value brand being relabelled Best One Essentials. As these items were sold in franchised Best One stores, it was argued that consumers would expect to carry the same label as the store.
In 2018, following a merger between the Today's Group with its principal competitor, Landmark Wholesale, the Today's label was rescinded. The newly formed company was named Unitas Wholesale and elected to keep the popular Lifestyle brand, with its economy range of Lifestyle Value. In 2024, Unitas Wholesale began the process of rebranding it Lifestyle brand to 'Local Living'.
In response to the United Kingdom cost of living crisis, Boots announced it was introducing a sixty-item "Everyday" range, with everything £1.50 or less. [19]
Tesco plc is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Welwyn Garden City, England. The company was founded by Jack Cohen in Hackney, London, in 1919. In 2011, it was the third-largest retailer in the world measured by gross revenues and the ninth-largest in the world measured by revenues. It has shops in Ireland, the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia. It is the market leader of groceries in the UK.
Safeway Limited is a British groceries brand, and former chain of supermarkets and convenience shops. The British Safeway was founded in 1962 by the American Safeway Inc., before being sold to Argyll Foods in 1987. It was later listed on the London Stock Exchange. It was purchased by Morrisons in March 2004. Most of its 479 shops were rebranded as Morrisons, with others being sold. Safeway-branded shops disappeared from the United Kingdom on 24 November 2005.
Wm Morrison Supermarkets Limited, trading as Morrisons, is the fifth largest supermarket chain in the United Kingdom. As of 2021, the company had 497 supermarkets across England, Wales and Scotland, and one in Gibraltar. The company is headquartered in Bradford, England.
Asda Stores Limited, trading as Asda and often styled as ASDA, is a British supermarket and petrol station chain. Its headquarters are in Leeds, England. The company was incorporated as Associated Dairies and Farm Stores in 1949. It expanded into Southern England during the 1970s and 1980s, and acquired Allied Carpets, 61 large Gateway Supermarkets and other businesses, such as MFI Group. It sold these acquisitions during the 1990s to concentrate on the supermarkets. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange until 1999 when it was acquired by Walmart for £6.7 billion. Asda was the second-largest supermarket chain in the United Kingdom between 2003 and 2014 by market share, at which point it fell into third place. As of August 2024, its market share in the UK is 12.6 per cent.
J Sainsbury plc, trading as Sainsbury's, is a British supermarket and the second-largest chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom.
Waitrose & Partners is a British supermarket chain, founded in 1904 as Waite, Rose & Taylor, later shortened to Waitrose. In 1937, it was acquired by the John Lewis Partnership, the UK's largest employee-owned business, which continues to operate the brand. The company's head offices are in Bracknell, Berkshire.
Aldi is the common company brand name of two German multinational family-owned discount supermarket chains operating over 12,000 stores in 18 countries. The chain was founded by brothers Karl and Theo Albrecht in 1946, when they took over their mother's store in Essen. The business was split into two separate groups in 1960, that later became Aldi Nord, headquartered in Essen, and Aldi Süd, headquartered in neighbouring Mülheim.
Discount stores offer a retail format in which products are sold at prices that are in principle lower than an actual or supposed "full retail price". Discounters rely on bulk purchasing and efficient distribution to keep down costs.
Somerfield was a chain of small to medium-sized supermarkets operating in the United Kingdom. The business started life in the 19th century as grocers J. H. Mills, and after a series of buyouts and mergers, the company became known as Gateway. A major rebranding to the created Somerfield brand started in 1990, and in 1998 the company purchased the Kwik Save chain of discount food stores. The company was taken over by the Co-operative Group on 2 March 2009 in a £1.57 billion deal, creating the UK's fifth-largest food retailer. The Somerfield name was replaced by the Co-operative brand in a rolling programme of store conversions ending in summer 2011.
Kwik Save is a British convenience store chain. Prior to 2007, it was also a discount supermarket chain that had shops across the United Kingdom. It went into administration in July 2007, but was brought back in April 2012. Its shops were small to medium-sized high street supermarkets, mainly located in areas with below average incomes.
Franklins was an Australian discount supermarket chain selling packaged groceries and perishables throughout New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria and South Australia. It sold the "No Frills" home brand generic products. In 2011 the chain was bought by Metcash and the stores were sold off, shut down or converted into new supermarket banners or other brands. The final store closed in April 2015.
Price Rite is a chain of supermarkets found in Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island. Based in Keasbey, New Jersey, Price Rite is owned by New Jersey–based Wakefern Food Corporation, the cooperative behind ShopRite Supermarkets, Dearborn Market, and The Fresh Grocer. Prior to 2014, Wakefern owned and operated all Price Rite stores.
Shoprite Limited was a community food store chain in the Isle of Man. It was a wholly owned subsidiary of Isle of Man Enterprises plc, until Tesco announced its purchase of the business on 9 October 2023.
The Grocer is a British digital and magazine service devoted to grocery sales, published by William Reed Ltd. It has been published since 1862.
Criticism has been directed at Tesco from various groups, including national organisations, trade bodies, individuals, consumer groups and watchdogs, particularly since the early 2000s.
Co-op is a UK supermarket chain and the brand used for the food retail business of The Co-operative Group, one of the world’s largest consumer co-operatives. As the UK’s fifth largest food retailer, Co-op operates nearly 2,400 food stores. It also supplies products to over 6,000 other stores, including those run by independent co-operative societies, through its wholesale business, Nisa Retail Limited.
SavaCentre was a chain of 13 hypermarkets and later a further seven discount supermarkets owned and operated jointly by Sainsbury's and BHS, beginning in 1977. Sainsbury's later took full control of the stores alone in 1989, rebranding them as Sainsbury's SavaCentre, until 2005 when the stores were integrated into the Sainsbury's supermarket brand. The hypermarket stores ranged in size from 66,000 sq ft (6,100 m2) to 117,000 sq ft (10,900 m2) and the discount supermarkets ranged in size from 31,000 sq ft (2,900 m2) to 70,000 sq ft (6,500 m2). At the time of its inception, it was the only dedicated hypermarket chain in the UK.
Tesco Town is British slang for an area where one retailer has large market share. Although the term references the Tesco chain of stores, it can be used to describe any area dominated by one particular retailer.
Express pricing is a form of price discrimination where, in a reverse of economies of scale, retailers raise their prices slightly in smaller stores. The name of it originates from Tesco Express, but it can be used to apply to any retailer operating a similar policy. A 2018 Inside Out investigation found that some Express prices were 178% more than their non-Express counterparts. According to Sainsbury's, this can be attributed to discrepancies in "operational requirements and running costs. Rents, for example", it being "more of a challenge to deliver products to our local stores" and "other factors such as staffing, local rates and a focus on convenience products".