Deeside based Iceland start next phase of multimillion-pound HQ investment following bumper festive sales

Iceland has begun work on the second phase of a £5 million investment programme which will provide an enhanced working environment for its growing central team at the Deeside HQ.

The work began just days after festive sales figures showed Iceland outgrew the big four Asda, Tesco, Morrisons and Sainsbury’s supermarkets over the festive period.

The frozen food specialist saw sales in the run up to Christmas grow to their highest level for four years.

[miptheme_quote author=”Iceland Joint Managing Director Nick Canning” style=”text-left”]Deeside is a superb place to work and we look forward to creating more new jobs in our head office and stores as our growth continues[/miptheme_quote]

Figures released by Nielsen show a rise of 4.7% in the 12 weeks to December 31, making Iceland the fastest-growing grocer other than discounters Aldi and Lidl.

Work on the HQ will see the installation of a new air conditioning system and LED lighting throughout the building, the provision of new office furniture, extension of the renowned Roxy staff restaurant and the installation of new restaurant kitchen.

This further investment follows Iceland’s creation in 2016 of a new £2 million product development kitchen at Deeside, designed to increase the pace and quality of product innovation.

New food filming and photography facilities have been created to support Iceland’s advertising and award-winning social media teams.

Iceland Joint Managing Director Nick Canning said:

“This latest phase of work brings our total investment at Deeside in 2016 and 2017 to £5 million, which is one of the largest capital outlays we have made on the site since we established our head office here in 1979.

“Over the last year we have strengthened our head office team by around 100 people to support our renewed focus on product quality and innovation, the rapid growth of our e-commerce business, major improvements in our merchandising, and the expansion of The Food Warehouse.

The success of all these initiatives is reflected in the strong sales performance recorded by Kantar Worldpanel and others, showing that Iceland is once again one of the fastest growing food retailers in the UK.

“The recruitment of many new senior personnel at our head office has given a £10 million boost to the local economy and our latest investment will ensure even better working conditions for our growing team.