Iceland Foods

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Iceland Foods Ltd
legal form Limited Company (Ltd.)
founding 1970
Seat Deeside , WalesWalesFlag of Wales (1959 – present) .svg 
management Malcolm Walker (Founder and CEO)
Number of employees 23,000
Branch retail trade
Website www.iceland.co.uk
Status: 2016

Iceland Foods Ltd is a British supermarket chain from Wales that mainly sells frozen products. The company has a 2.2% share of the UK food market. The supermarkets in the home country operate under the Iceland brand .

history

The first store was opened in 1970 in Oswestry by Malcolm Walker and Peter Hinchcliffe. At the time, both were employed by Woolworths and were fired when their part-time job became known.

Iceland initially specialized in unpackaged frozen products. In 1977 they opened a new store in Manchester and also sold their own branded packaged products. In 1978 they already had 28 stores.

In 1983 they acquired 18 stores from St. Catherine's Freezer Centers . In 1984 they went public. With the additional capital they were able to acquire Orchard Frozen Foods in 1986 and Bejam in 1988 . In 1993, Iceland took over the market halls of Littlewoods department store . The takeover of the French supermarket chain Au Gel was unsuccessful, the subsidiary was given up after a year.

In May 2000 the company merged with Booker plc and Stuart Rose of Booker became CEO. In 2001, Malcolm Walker was forced to step down from the board after it was revealed that he had sold his company stock for £ 13.5 before the company issued a profit warning. Walker became director again in 2005.

In February 2005 the company was taken over by the Icelandic Baugur Group . After the Baugur Group's bankruptcy in February 2009, a majority stake was taken over by Icelandic banks and sold in 2012 to a consortium in which Malcolm Walker and Graham Kirkham were involved.

Iceland also has stores in Spain and Portugal (countries with many British immigrants) in partnership with Spanish retailer Overseas, as well as in the Czech Republic.

In Malta, Iceland operates through franchisees. Initially, Iceland branded products were delivered to supermarkets. The first shop opened in 2015 in Birkirkara . Further stores in Mosta , Qawra and Marsascala followed.

In January 2018 Iceland announced the construction of its 16th distribution center and the creation of 1,000 new jobs.

criticism

In 2018, Iceland announced that it would no longer use palm oil in its branded products due to criticism of the production of palm oil for causing environmental damage . In November 2018 they wanted to publish a short animated film with an orangutan on British television. The control authority Clearcast saw this as a violation of the “UK Code of Broadcast Advertising”. Since the film had previously been released by Greenpeace , it was classified as a politicized advertisement.

literature

  • Malcolm Walker: Best Served Cold: The Rise, Fall and Rise Again of Malcolm Walker . Icon Books, 2013, ISBN 978-1-84831-700-0 (English).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Sarah Butler: Iceland government challenges retail chain Iceland over name use. The Guardian, November 24, 2016, accessed December 21, 2018 .
  2. ↑ a b The Iceland story ( english ) Iceland. December 14, 2007. Archived from the original on December 14, 2007. Retrieved on December 21, 2018.
  3. ^ A b Company Profile, Information, Business Description, History, Background Information on Iceland Group plc. Iceland Group plc, accessed December 21, 2018 .
  4. ^ A b History of the Big Food Group. Funding Universe, accessed April 30, 2015 .
  5. ↑ Iceland Foods CEO Walker Purchases UK Frozen Food Chain for $ 2.3 trillion ( English ) In: Bloomberg . March 9, 2012. Archived from the original on October 31, 2013. Retrieved on December 21, 2018.
  6. ↑ Too political? Supermarket advertising becomes an online hit despite TV bans. OnlineMarketing.de, November 13, 2018, accessed December 21, 2018 .