Food Price Index shows lower grocery prices

Food Price Index shows lower grocery prices for Kiwi consumers

11 December 2015: Today, Statistics New Zealand announced that the Food Price Index has dropped once again. Since October 2013, Countdown has dropped the everyday price of 3,000 products.

Countdown’s General Manager of Merchandise Chris Fisher says that a continued focus on driving down the price for groceries for Kiwi consumers is paying off.

“As a business, we’ve been doing a lot of work to drop the prices on a large number of products over the past two years and it’s delivering real savings for our customers at the checkout.

“Through the Price Lockdown and Price Drop programme more than 3,000 products have had their everyday prices dropped to date, since October 2013. This activity is also making significant contribution towards better food affordability in NZ, as evidenced by the latest Food Price Index.

“We track a basket of 100 of the most commonly purchased items in our supermarkets and this has come down by 0.5 per cent in the year to October 2015.”

This basket includes meat, produce and dairy items where there can be substantial seasonal and commodity price variations.

The Index reading has come out in the same week that Consumer NZ survey results have shown Countdown’s price position has improved on the 2014 survey result, and that Countdown is now neck-and-neck with Pak’nSave in a number of key regions throughout New Zealand.

The Consumer NZ survey also showed that New World is considerably more expensive than Countdown throughout the country.

“Since launching the Price Lockdown programme in October 2013, Countdown has delivered increasingly low prices, while maintaining our commitment to quality, convenience, and range across our network of 183 stores,” Mr Fisher says.

“Customers are increasingly recognising Countdown’s lower prices and when combined with our extensive range and great store environment this makes Countdown a great place to shop.”

ENDS

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