UK – British supermarket chain Iceland Foods Limited has announced plans to expand its distribution network by adding 250 store sites to the current 200 as part of its expansion efforts.
Iceland is hunting for locations with a minimum footprint of 10,000 square feet in retail parks in England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
The retailer revealed it is eyeing locations in Dundee, Salisbury, and Crawley, although the supermarket chain is also seeking locations in suburban areas of Newcastle, Manchester, Glasgow, and London.
The Food Warehouse Stores were launched in 2014 as an ‘experiment,’ with stores located in retail parks and are three times larger than traditional Iceland outlets. However, the stores soon became a focal point for the chain’s performance, reporting significantly better like-for-like sales performance than the traditional Iceland stores.
The chain has successfully opened an average of 20 Food Warehouse stores every year since 2014, crossing the 200 mark by the end of 2023.
The doubling of Food Warehouse stores across the UK is viewed as the company’s aggressive expansion strategy, meant to replicate the enhanced efficiency and higher like-for-like sales in new locations in the UK.
The supermarket chain has enjoyed significant growth and expansion in the past few years due to an aggressive competitive pricing strategy and strategic partnerships.
In July 2023, the company announced a significant drop in the prices of 500 essential grocery items, enhancing its competitiveness in the grocery market after high inflation dampened customer demand. The pricing strategy offered multi-buy value deals on a third of its product range.
In May 2022, the chain announced a partnership with JD.com to supply frozen food products to China. The partnership allowed access to the large Chinese market, introducing award-winning products like the wood-fired, stone-baked Italian pizzas, which are produced in the heart of the Italian countryside, as well as an array of snacks, ready meals, and some of its famed ice cream and desserts.
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