Morrisons is cutting the price of 130 staple products as its new management team step up their efforts to restore growth at the chain. .

With Chief Executive Dalton Philip officially departing the business today, Morrisons said that the price of everyday items such as milk, cheese, bread, pasta and coffee were being reducing by an average of 22% across branded and own label lines.

Chief Financial Officer Trevor Strain has assumed Philip’s executive responsibilities with new Chairman Andrew Higginson said to have effectively taken control of the retailer since his arrival last month. The former Tesco executive has said that he wants to focus on getting the chain “back to basics” and playing to “good old fashioned Morrisons strengths”.

Nick Collard, Morrison’s Group Marketing and Customer Director, said the latest round of reductions were part of its £1bn plan to lower prices permanently and combat the rise of the discounters. “The price cuts we have now made across products that customers buy week in, week out, are making a real difference to the cost of the weekly family shop,” he said.