Tesco rivals Boots

UK supermarket group Tesco is making a bid to undercut health and beauty retailer Boots by launching a €100m price reduction program. With an everything under one roof policy more customers are turning to supermarkets to purchase cosmetics.

"Research has shown that we are winning custom as a lot of our products are significantly cheaper than Boots. We've already invested nearly €2 billion in cutting prices over the last six years," said Tesco director Tim Mason.

The long-term price cuts are claimed to be on over 600 products with average reductions of eight per cent. The price cuts cover all areas of the store with a focus on health & beauty and baby products.

Tesco, which claims to check more than 10,000 products every week for unbeatable value, claim that parents shopping for a typical basket of 12 baby products can save a staggering 11 per cent when shopping at Tesco compared to Boots.

However Boots contested that it had also reduced prices on key product lines for customers in the past year.

"Price is obviously a big factor in the choice of many basic lines in health and beauty. Customers want a brand they can trust, expertise, advice, guidance and a range of products to suit all their various needs-not necessarily something you will find in a grocers," said a Boots spokeswoman.