Iceland sales heading for £2.8bn
Deeside-based food retailer Iceland enjoyed a 4.4% increase in sales to £2.792bn in the year to March 25.
EBITDA rose 6.3% to £160.3m and year-end cash balances stood at £193.2m (2016: £164.9m) after £38.8m of bond redemptions.
The company pointed to strengthening of its senior management team, the opening of Iceland Kitchen and its “Power of Frozen” marketing campaign as operational highlights.
Founder and executive chairman Malcolm Walker said: “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.
“We also devised a new store format for our core Iceland stores which extends their appeal and offers significant potential for the future, while our Online business was re-affirmed as the best in the UK and continued to grow strongly.
“All our initiatives were successfully communicated through our distinctive “Power of Frozen” marketing and PR campaign, across both traditional and social media, which is playing a significant role in changing public attitudes to frozen food, increasing appreciation of its many advantages, and identifying Iceland as the natural place to buy it.
“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: a unique British business focused on high quality, innovative and exciting food, with a real commitment to contributing to the communities in which we operate.”
