Oswestry-founded Iceland supermarket chain sees sales grow

The Shropshire-founded supermarket chain delivered a 4.4 per cent increase in sales to £2.8 billion in the year to March 24.

On a like-for-like basis, which compares sales only in stores which have been open for a year, sales returned to growth of two per cent, having fallen by 2.7 per cent last year.

Executive chairman Malcolm Walker, who founded the chain in Oswestry in 1970, said: "The set of strategic initiatives we began in 2015, with the aim of differentiating Iceland, changing consumer perceptions and so restoring growth to our business, bore fruit in the year under review.

"Like-for-like sales performance improved throughout the year to make us one of the UK’s fastest-growing food retailers by the year-end.

"We increased the pace and enhanced the quality of our new product development, reflected in the multiple product awards we won during the year, and opened a new £2m development kitchen at our head office in Deeside to drive further improvement."

"At the same time we reinforced our value credentials through a programme of outstanding value deals, made our stores more relevant and accessible to customers by extending and standardising their opening hours, and continued to open profitable new stores under both The Food Warehouse and Iceland fascias."

He added: "After a record Christmas, Iceland ended the financial year with its best-ever product offer, strengthened management, high morale and growing confidence in our ability to achieve continued growth by simply being ourselves."

The retailer saw pre-tax earnings or profits rise 6.3 per cent to £160 million over the period.

The supermarket has also devised a new store format for its stores and expanded its Food Warehouse outlets, which combine a cash-and-carry format and the more traditional Iceland style.

The group opened 28 new stores last year, including 24 larger stores under the Food Warehouse fascia, leaving it with a total of 884 UK outlets.

Mr Walker said that trading in the new financial year is "solid", with like for like sales growth remaining positive.

However, Iceland also flagged the collapse in the value of the pound since the Brexit vote, which has ramped up the cost of imports and in turn shop prices.

"We continue to work with our suppliers to mitigate these pressures as far as we can, so as to minimise the impact on consumers, but the economic environment will clearly remain uncertain until we achieve clarity on the timing and nature of Brexit," the firm said.

The figures come during a period of flux in the supermarket sector, with Britain's so-called Big Four – Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury's and Morrisons – still losing ground to German duo Aldi and Lidl.

In addition, Tesco's proposed merger with Booker and Sainsbury's acquisition of Argos promise to shake up the sector further.