| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Retail |
| Founded | 1970, Malcolm Walker |
| Headquarters | Deeside, Flintshire, Wales |
| Number of locations | 851 (December 2011) |
Iceland is a supermarket chain in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Iceland's primary product lines include frozen foods, such as frozen prepared meals and frozen vegetables - hence the name of the company. The company approximately has a 1.8% share of the UK food market.
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Iceland began business in 1970, when Malcolm Walker opened the first store in Oswestry, Shropshire with his business partners Peter Hinchcliffe investing £60 for one month's rent at their Shropshire store. They were 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, including frozen pizzas.
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 February 2004, the combined chain had 760 stores throughout the United Kingdom.
Iceland announced they plan to have 40 stores operating in Ireland by 2014. There are currently 9 stores in Ireland.[1]
Finding the retail market more hostile in the late 1990s, 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.
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. However, the rebranding exercise appears to have been quietly abandoned in the early 2000s, as the unadorned Iceland name is now used more widely, although some stores still have the Iceland.co.uk name on display.
The supermarket also attempted ties with British Home Stores.[2]
In the summer of 2000 Iceland merged with Booker plc with Booker's Stuart Rose taking the role of CEO of the merged company. He left for the Arcadia Group within a few months. He was replaced by Bill Grimsey in January 2001.[3]
Soon after Grimsey's appointment Malcolm Walker, Iceland's founder & Chairman, was forced to stand down as it was revealed he had sold £13.5 million of Iceland shares five weeks before the company released the first of several profits warnings.[4][5] Walker was not fully cleared of these allegations until October 2004.[6]
Iceland was renamed the Big Food Group in Feb 2002,[7] and attempted a refocus on the convenience sector with a bid for Londis.[8] Grimsey remained until the takeover and demerger of the Big Food Group by a consortium led by the Icelandic company, Baugur Group in February 2005. Walker returned to his previous role at Iceland.[7] Under Walker's control Iceland's website contains pages of polemic against Grimsey's period in control.[9]
Iceland was one of the many major retailers who took advantage of the Enterprise Zone incentives offered by the giant Merry Hill Shopping Centre that was developed at Brierley Hill in the West Midlands between 1985 and 1990. It opened a store there in 1989, relocating from Dudley town centre; only for this store to close a decade or so later.
In 1996, six stores were opened in Dublin and one in Letterkenny. They all closed down in 2005 due to financial difficulties. In November 2008, a store reopened in Ballyfermot in Dublin, after Iceland agreed a franchise deal with an Irish cash and carry company, AIM,[10] and in November 2009 a second store reopened in Finglas, Dublin. A third opened on the Navan Road in September 2010. A fourth store opened in the Ilac Centre in Dublin in November 2010. There are now five Iceland stores in Ireland. In November 2010 AIM announced plans to launch 40 new stores within 4 years.
Since Malcolm Walker's return to the company, Iceland has reduced the workforce by 500 jobs at the Deeside Head Office, with approximately 300 jobs moved in September as a result of a relocation of a distribution warehouse from Deeside to Warrington. During July 2006, 300 workers took industrial action with the support of their union, blocking several lorries from entering the depot. Despite this, the transfer to Warrington took place and the new warehouse was later outsourced to DHL in April 2007.
In January 2009, Iceland announced that it would buy 51 stores in the UK from the failed Woolworths Group chain, three days after the final 200 Woolworths stores closed their doors for the last time.[11]
In April 2009, Iceland announced plans to close its appliance showrooms by September 2009 to concentrate on food retailing[12]
Iceland's sales for the year ended 27 March 2009 were £2.08 billion, a 16% increase on the previous year, with net profits of £113.7 million.[13]
In 2010, the company began opening stores outside the United Kingdom and Ireland, in Eastern Europe.
An additional Iceland store opened in Dudley town centre on 2 December 2010 in part of the former Beatties department store, 21 years after the retailer closed their store in the town.[14]
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 up or down 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.
2006 also saw a huge surge in 'Home Delivery' promotion. This service is now one of the main focuses of the company. When a customer spends £25 or more on their shopping they have the option of free same-day home delivery.
On 6 October 2008, Iceland officially launched their "Bonus Card", a loyalty card and an advanced replacement for the original home delivery card, after successfully trialling the scheme in some regions of the UK. Customers who register for the new card receive offers and vouchers from time to time, also whenever the card is used in store the customer is entered into a monthly prize draw to win one of 50 £100 Iceland Vouchers (a total giveaway of £5,000 in vouchers to a combined 50 customers per store), as well as several other prizes, including in store instant reward, trolley dashes, holidays and cars.[15]
The supermarket historically advertised with the slogan Mums Love It, which was changed to Are we doing a deal or are we doing a deal? and Feel the deal in the early 2000s. The new adverts featuring television personality Kerry Katona has seen a return to a slogan more traditionally associated with Iceland - So that's why mums go to Iceland!. Their slogans have often been parodied.
On 17 August 2009 Iceland Supermakets announced that Kerry would be sacked from their ad campaigns with immediate effect. This decision followed an investigation by The News of The World which uncovered video evidence of Kerry snorting cocaine in her Wilmslow house.[16]
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 featured the line "We're at Bejam's too..."
Iceland staff received new uniforms in June 2007. The uniform consists of a red polo-shirt with an orange band on the collar and sleeves, A black nylon jacket with the Iceland logo embroidered on it and black trousers.
The new uniform went live on 1 March 2011. It consists of a 'black' coloured shirt with orange,red and grey coloured stripes running down it and the iceland logo embroided on the sleeve, black and orange nylon fleeces and gilets with the logo embroidered and black jeans. The new delivery driver uniform also consists of a large waterproof bomber jacket with the logo on the back, a baseball cap or 'beanie' hat and a striped scarf. Supervisors uniform consists of black suit trousers, a silvery-grey shirt and store managers have the addition of a suit jacket and red tie.
Iceland have been the sponsors of ITV show I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! since 2006. This was a major sponsorship deal for the supermarket, and particularly fitting because of Kerry Katona appearing on the Iceland advertisements; she also therefore appeared on the sponsorship adverts. The celebrity's autobiography appeared for sale in these supermarkets when it first was published.
In 2007, former contestant Jason Donovan, appeared as well as Katona and workers of the company had to wear green T-shirts displaying the TV show's logo for the duration of the series and associated promotion. Scratch and peel cards were given to customers who spent over £10 in store: prizes included money off products and a holiday in Australia. In 2008, Christopher Biggins featured in the sponsorship adverts with Katona.
Since 2010, Stacey Solomon has been featured in Iceland adverts.
Iceland products are also supplied to Manx retailer Shoprite (Isle of Man).
In Spring 2010, Iceland launched a new programme in search of a New Face of Iceland. Ideally customers were to put themselves forward for auditions to be involved with the marketing of all Iceland's products and services. Thousands of people applied, but only 52 made it through to the next round judged by Iceland directors, as well as Malcolm Walker and Coleen Nolan. From the 52 auditionees, seven were chosen to face the public vote, where Ellie Taylor eventually went on to become the 2010 Face of Iceland.
Ellie has her own weekly blog on the Iceland website.[17]
On March 2011 it was announced that Stacy Solomon the former X Factor finalist and I'm A Celebrity winner will appear in the company's new advertising campaign.
|title= specified when using {{Cite web}}". http://iceland.ie/store-location/. Retrieved 5 November 2011.
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