Sales rise 4.5pc for Iceland group
The Iceland supermarkets group saw sales rise 4.5 per cent to £3.08 billion in the year to March 29, driven by new store openings.
Iceland Topco, the holding company of Iceland Foods, reported adjusted earnings before tax of £140.1 million, which were down £13.4m (8.7 per cent) on the previous year.
The sales growth was ahead of the UK grocery market as a whole.
The bulk of the profits shortfall came in the first half of the year with a stable performance in the second half for Iceland, which was formed in Oswestry in 1970 and has its headquarters at Deeside, Flintshire.
Iceland stepped up investment in 2018-2019 with net capital expenditure of £101.1m from £81.3m in 2017-2018.
The group opened a net 43 new stores in the year with The Food Warehouse chain expanded from 57 to 90. It increased total stores to 975.
A strategic alliance was formed with The Range with an Iceland food offer added to nine stores.
The launch of the new website helped the online business continue to achieve market-leading growth.
In he current year 14 new stores have opened – seven each for Iceland and The Food Warehouse – with 50 in total planned over year
Iceland group chief executive Tarsem Dhaliwal said: "Within an intensely competitive UK market place, adversely affected by consumer uncertainty and the well-known pressures of changing shopping habits on the high street, we have continued to focus on investing for the future: expanding our store footprint, enhancing the appeal of our existing stores, growing our award-winning online business, continuing to roll out new and exciting food lines that are unique to Iceland, developing our supply chain to support the growth of our retail estate, and finding new channels to sell our food through The Range in the UK and a growing global franchise and export business."
