LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's Morrisons (L:MRW) announced price cuts on Monday as the country's fourth-largest supermarket ratcheted up an already fierce industry price war.
Morrisons announced in March 2014 that it would invest 1 billion pounds ($1.5 billion) on lower prices over three years.
Monday's cuts, some 200 on everyday branded and own-brand items, are the first to be announced under new Chief Executive David Potts, the former Tesco executive who succeeded Dalton Philips in March.
Like rivals Tesco (L:TSCO), Wal-Mart's Asda (N:WMT) and Sainsbury's (L:SBRY), Morrisons is lowering prices to a bid to stem the flow of shoppers turning to discounters Aldi and Lidl.
All players are also having to deal with record commodity-driven industry price deflation.
Industry data last Tuesday showed Morrisons had returned to sales growth for the first time since December 2013.
At last Thursday's annual shareholder meeting, CEO Potts received the endorsement of Ken Morrison, the son of the grocer's founder and a former boss.