Supermarket chain Tesco is to sell software, including an Office Suite, under its own brand for less than £20 a title – with a full support package. The company already sells PCs.

The move stems from a deal with Crawley-based Formjet , which publishes Ability Office, one of the leading alternatives to Microsoft Office. This has come out well in PCW group tests. Tim Nott concluded of version 4.0: "Looks promising enough to worry Microsoft."

It is bundled with some PCs and claims compatibility with Microsoft Office, though this is unlikely to extend to all features.

Tesco will start with two security products, a personal finance module, an office suite, a CD/DVD burning module and a photo-editing suite. They will be launched this month in 100 UK stores and will roll out to others over the next 12 months.

Formjet is the UK distributor of Panda security products, but the company stresses that the Tesco products are tailored for sale in the store and not simply rebadged versions of its existing portfolio.

The company will provide support and other services via a new Tesco Software site. This is live today, but offers only a list of contact numbers.

See also Tesco eschews Open standard blog.