Iceland (supermarket)
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Iceland is a supermarket chain in the United Kingdom, partly owned by the Icelandic retailer conglomerate Baugur. Iceland's primary product lines include frozen foods such as frozen prepared meals and frozen vegetables.
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[edit] Origins
Iceland's beginnings date to November 1970. Malcolm Walker opened the first store in Oswestry, Shropshire with his business partner Peter Hinchliffe, investing £30 each. They were both still employees of Woolworths at the time, and their employment was terminated once their employer discovered their job on the side. Iceland initially specialised in loose frozen food.
By 1975, there were 15+ Iceland outlets in North Wales, with the first supermarket-style outlet opening in Manchester a couple of years later. The firm's head office moved to Deeside, Flintshire in 1979. Iceland was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1984, by which stage it had 81 outlets.
In 1989 Iceland bought its competitor Bejam which was some three times larger in terms of business.
By 8 January 2004, the chain had 760 stores throughout the British Isles.
[edit] Diversification
Finding the retail market more hostile in the late 90's, Iceland pursued avenues for differentiation. In 1998, the firm began to focus on providing organic food and Genetically modified-free food. This policy saw the company convert its entire frozen vegetable range to organic in 2000. Organic food sales did not perform well among Iceland's traditional customers.
In 1999, Iceland launched what it claimed to be the first nationwide, free, online grocery shopping service. This tied in with the rebranding of all outlets under the Iceland.co.uk. [1] However, it appears that the rebranding exercise was quietly abandoned at some stage in the early 2000s, as the unadorned Iceland name is once more used for this purpose.
Iceland's product range includes consumer durables such as refrigerators which are sold in selected stores.
[edit] Recent developments
Following several more years of declining sales, The Big Food Group was bought by Icelandic firm Baugur in February 2005. Malcolm Walker was installed as chief executive again, having been cleared of insider dealing in 2004, following an investigation by the Serious Fraud Office. Since Malcolm Walker's return to the company, the company has reduced the workforce by 500 jobs at the Deeside Head Office, with approximately 300 jobs due to be relocated in September as a result of a re-location of the distribution warehouse from Deeside to Warrington. The union response has included strike action and during July 2006, 300 workers struck, blocking several lorries from entering the depot.
The seven stores in the Republic of Ireland were closed in 2005, with the loss of 160 jobs.
Iceland closed its online home shopping service (food) in 2005.
[edit] Marketing
The supermarket historically advertised with the slogan That's why mum's gone to Iceland, which was changed to Because mums are heroes for a time. It has returned to using its famous original slogan in its current series of adverts featuring former Atomic Kitten and reality television personality Kerry Katona. The company spent nearly £5 million on advertising at Christmas 2005 to help bring the company back into profit.
When the chain bought rival Bejam in 1989, they launched the TV-advertising campaign "Use Our Imagination," which included a powerful song. The campaign was launched so quickly after the takeover that they hadn't time to convert all Bejam stores to the "Iceland" fascia. Because of this in the song for the commercial the singer proclaims "We're at Bejam's too..."
In September 2006, a new nationwide uniform was launched. The vibrant blue & green chequered shirt was ditched in favour of a more informal blue polo shirt, with a red stitched 'Iceland' in the top right hand corner. Management shirts were modified to a slightly lighter blue and the men have a red tie with the word Iceland embroided on it. However, the lifespan of these new uniforms is shortlived - they are being scrapped in 2007 for a new design as the current strip doesn't meet the standards expected by Malcolm Walker, this has resulted in a legal dispute with the uniform supplier and stores have been banned from placing new orders. Iceland currently has a temporary deal in place with an alternative supplier to provide safety clothing and plain blue shirts until a new uniform range can be sourced. Staff at Iceland stores are now able to pre-order the new uniform which will be released on the 11th of June. The new uniform includes red polo shirts.
The company has recently made large scale changes to the kinds of promotions it offers on products. In the past "Buy One Get One Free" and Meal Deals (a selection of products for a set price) were common in stores, although these have now been reduced and replaced with products offering bigger packs at the original prices. The pricing system has also been changed with many products having their prices rounded off to the nearest multiple of 25p (i.e. £1.29 becomes £1.25), this is known as Clear Cut Prices and aims to simplify the pricing system.
September also saw a huge surge in 'Home Delivery' promotion. This service is now one of the main focuses of the company.
[edit] I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here
The 2006 series of "Im a Celebrity get me out of here" was sponsored by Iceland. This was a major sponsorship deal for the supermarket.
[edit] External links
Major chains: ASDA • Marks & Spencer • Morrisons • Sainsbury's • Somerfield • Tesco • Waitrose
Convenience stores: Budgens • Co-op • Costcutter • Londis • SPAR
Discount chains: ALDI • Kwik Save • Lidl • Netto
Frozen foods: Farmfoods • Iceland
