Iceland ‘s new NI depot bids to smooth post-Brexit trading

Iceland has opened a new international depot in Northern Ireland  in a bid make post-Brexit trade easier.

Asked what lay behind the decision, Alistair Cooke, Head of Iceland International explained: “There are a number of reasons for the new international depot, but primarily reason for doing it is to make exporting to EU easier, more cost efficient (no tariffs) and effectively back to the way it was pre-Brexit. It also allows us to have a dedicated international depot as opposed to sharing a depot with Iceland UK.

“The depot will mainly serve our Spanish franchise customer but will supply customers in Malta, Cyprus, Czech, Norway, Iceland, Netherlands and any other EU customer. We may also supply USA from this depot,” he told The Grocer.

“Our international business is very important to our overall business. It generates significant turnover towards the total Iceland business, generating profit as well as helping with overall buying power. It also exposes the Iceland brand to a worldwide audience.

“There is a finite amount of growth potential in the UK. The frozen food business is growing in almost every part of the world, so with over 50 years experience in the frozen food business, Iceland is ideally placed to exploit that growth potential. There really is no limit to the level of business that could be generated across the world for the Iceland brand.”

‘Huge growth’

Alistair said that while both Brexit and the pandemic had been disruptive, the company still had big expansion plans.

“We will just keep growing. We have short, mid and long term targets which will be met by opening further franchise stores across Norway and Scandinavia as well as other markets across the world.

“We will increase number of retail partners we work with and further develop our ‘store in store’ concepts. China is growing for us quickly and we expect to see huge growth within that market over the next 5 years, both through ‘bricks and mortar’ and online retailers.

“Our new international depot will allow us to adapt the way we work, to better meet the demands and needs of our ever growing international customer base.”

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