Aldi ups pressure on UK rivals with more price cuts

LONDON (Reuters) - Discount supermarket Aldi [ALDIEI.UL] has increased the pressure on bigger rivals in Britain with a new wave of price reductions.

The firm said on Friday the price cuts on lines including fresh meat, fresh fruit and vegetables were a response to reductions announced last month by Morrisons (MRW.L), Britain's No. 4 supermarket, which in turn followed cuts by Wal-Mart's (WMT.N) Asda, the No. 3 player.

A supermarket price war is regularly cited in official data as a factor bearing down on UK inflation.

Aldi did not disclose how much it was spending on the latest reductions but said they would be backed up with a major advertising campaign.

Asda and Morrisons, along with other "big four" rivals, market leader Tesco (TSCO.L) and No. 2 Sainsbury's (SBRY.L), have been cutting prices to try to narrow the gap with Aldi and fellow German discounter Lidl [LIDUK.UL], which have been winning market share.

On Thursday, Sainsbury's said it would phase out multi-buy promotions across its grocery business by August, saying customers no longer appreciate them.

(Reporting by James Davey; Editing by Mark Potter)