Sainsbury’s is to print and hand out Money Off Next Purchase coupons hundreds of branded and Sainsbury’s own-brand products at the till. What coupons consumers get will be based on either individual customers’ shopping baskets or, if they are Nectar Card holders, on historic purchasing patterns.

Sainsbury’s claims the new ‘Coupons at Till’ initiative is its biggest investment in customer loyalty since the launch of the Nectar Card in 2002. It has earmarked a multi-million pound budget over the next five years.

Customers will apparently benefit from discounts on a wide range of branded and Sainsbury’s own-brand products, with savings of up to 20% on some of the retailer’s most popular items.

The full-colour coupons will be generated on-the-spot through stand alone printers currently being rolled out to 13,000 checkouts across 535 Sainsbury’s supermarkets. The printers were developed by US company Catalina Marketing.

Over 60 leading brands including Unilever, Proctor & Gamble and Heinz have been signed up to the scheme by LMG Insight and Communication, and will offer a wide range of money saving opportunities to Sainsbury’s customers.

The initiative has been trialled successfully in a number of stores over the past 12 months, but the first major push will coincide with Sainsbury’s latest Switch and Save campaign, which has just launched.

Gwyn Burr, Sainsbury’s customer director, says: “We know that 50% of shoppers take coupons and vouchers with them when they shop, and it’s a really practical way for people to stretch their budgets, especially in the current economic climate. The new coupon scheme, together with the low prices and promotions we already have, means customers will get unbeatable value on the products that are most useful to them. And the system can tailor offers using both Nectar and transaction data, so we can reach many more customers with offers that are targeted to what they actually buy.”