Iceland shows the Power of Frozen
Having marked 30 years in Northern Ireland, Iceland Foods continues to grow in the region – and will open four new food warehouses here in the next 12 months, as MD for Ireland and Northern Ireland, Ron Metcalfe reveals.
From opening its first store on the Cregagh Road three decades ago, frozen food specialist, Iceland Foods now has 37 stores across the region, including two Food Warehouses, employing 800 colleagues.
Throughout those 30 years it has worked hard to become a significant player in the grocery sector here, offering a competing value proposition and a commitment to supporting locally sourced products.
Now with two strings to their bow, they have their core stores which are 7,000 to 10,000 sq ft and their Food Warehouse stores, which are about 13,000 to 16,000 sq ft carrying over 5,000 products with bigger pack sizes. As Ron Metcalfe explains, Northern Ireland is a crucial part of the Iceland Foods story.
“We saw Northern Ireland as a really strong opportunity given we had just made our presence felt in Scotland,” said Ron. “There was a large gap in the market here and that was the big reason for coming across.
“Thirty years ago, Northern Ireland had huge potential for us to grow the brand and it still holds true today. Our continued growth is a reflection of this. We have refitted 15 stores in the last five years and invested over £6 million in those, and we have opened a second Food Warehouse in Belfast.
“I can reveal that we are opening four new Food Warehouses here and will open those in the next 12 months in Northern Ireland, supporting our growth and creating jobs. We are massively supportive of the Northern Ireland market and customers love the brand and we love being here.”
Acknowledging Northern Ireland’s very strong independent grocery sector, Ron said Iceland is able to compete due to its host of unique selling points.
“It’s down to our exclusive brands, our value proposition and we are growing other sectors of the stores, such as chilled and grocery,” said Ron.
“We have three ways to shop with us – in-store, online and our delivery partners. So, we continue to grow our online channel and which has become a very important part of the business. This is also supported with delivery partners, Deliveroo, Uber and Just Eat.
“Our teams across the buying, merchandising and marketing departments allow us to focus on the NI consumer and on our local range, which is really important to our customers.
“In the last five years we have grown our local portfolio. The buying team has worked exceptionally hard to bring that local entity into the business and we continue to look at every opportunity. We have 50 local suppliers with over 500 lines and that is something we have worked on and grown throughout the 30 years.”
Ron added that with the Windsor Framework, the company has to be fleet of foot in order to make sure they can continue to maximise their range.
“There is the continuing challenge of bringing in certain products into the island,” he said.
“Products from Morocco, Brazil, Argentina cannot be brought in so once again, we have had to look at alternative arrangements for these lines, as well as all products must now be labelled ‘Not For Sale in EU’. It’s all based around product and legislation, but having managed our business in the Republic of Ireland through Brexit, we are well equipped and well aware of the challenges we face with the Brexit arrangement.
“We have a team in GB in our head office and along with ourselves, we continually work with it every week to make sure we are aware of the next range of products that might be affected, speaking with suppliers to see that they are aware and changing packaging where required.”
READ THE FULL INTERVIEW WITH RON METCALFE IN THE MAY ISSUE OF NEIGHBOURHOOD RETAILER HERE
