S Group's vice president in charge of retail Ilkka Alarotu said that sales at the company's Prisma hypermarkets have grown by seven percent in the first week since it announced deep discounts on some of its products.
According to Alarotu, the stores' customer base has also been growing - up by 150,000 after the new pricing policy was introduced.
"Altogether Prisma and S-markets saw 100,000 customers more than on a similar Monday last year. Nationwide sales at Prisma outlets grew by nearly 20 percent," Alarotu said, adding that the growth trend appeared to be holding fast.
On January 18 the S Group -- which controls just over 40 percent of the food retail market -- said it was discounting prices on some 400 food items by up to 37 percent in some cases, effective January 19. The company said that the price reductions would be permanent.
Shortly afterwards, its competitors Kesko -- which has a 37 percent market share -- and the German chain Lidl also entered the discount race by announcing substantial cuts. Kesko claimed that it had moved first to reduce prices in December.
