Prestigious Grocer Cup award for Iceland boss Sir Malcolm Walker

Founder and Executive Chairman of Deeside based Iceland Foods Sir Malcolm Walker was also presented with the prestigious Grocer Cup.

The award if given to the individual who has contributed most to the grocery industry over the past year by showing ‘exceptional leadership’ in inspiring their company to achieve results.

This was decided by popular vote, with Sir Malcolm beating nine other leaders from companies including Aldi, Morrisons and Tesco.

At the same event Iceland was named Online Retailer of the Year at this week’s IGD Awards.

The award is based on real customer satisfaction as measured by the IGD’s ShopperVista monthly shopping tracker.

Last week Iceland received an Outstanding Achievement Award at the Retail Industry Awards, continuing an amazing run of success that in 2017 alone has included being named:

• Online Supermarket of the Year at The Grocer Gold Awards, where we also won the award for
• Business Initiative of the Year for the new Iceland Kitchen; winning
• Two Gold, two Silver and four Bronze Awards at the British Frozen Food Awards – more than any other retailer; and being named
• Convenience Retailer of the Year at the FreshAwards for excellence in fresh produce.
• Best Online Store for the second consecutive year in the annual Which? supermarket survey.

Iceland Managing Director of Online David Devany said: “Winning awards seems to be becoming a habit, but it is a massive thrill to pick one up that is based on genuine customer feedback.

This reinforces the findings of the Which? supermarket survey that we really do offer the best online service in the UK measured by the only thing that ultimately matters: delivering customer satisfaction.”

Iceland Founder & Executive Chairman Malcolm Walker said:

“I’ve never been a great fan of awards dinners – to put it mildly – but I have to say that the IGD Awards were a truly fantastic event. Winning The Grocer Cup is one of the absolute highlights of my 53 years in retailing – and the fact that it was voted for by my colleagues, competitors, suppliers and customers makes it all the more special. I thank everyone who voted for me for this huge demonstration of support.

“The awards we keep winning underline the huge progress Iceland has made over the last two years to make us one of the UK’s best-regarded food retailers.

We have invested heavily in people and assets to make this possible, including spending £2 million to create the best retail development kitchen in Europe at our Deeside head office.

We are successfully winning new customers and delighting established shoppers by developing unique, exciting and great-tasting quality food that they simply cannot buy anywhere else, while continuing to offer outstanding value for money.

“Today we have the strongest management team we have ever had, our best-ever product range, a market-leading Online business, and are successfully changing perceptions of Iceland both through our “Power of Frozen” marketing campaign and by making major improvements in our stores.

Our new Iceland store concept is proven to enhance our customer appeal and is now being rolled out across the country, while our distinctive and complementary The Food Warehouse format is already open in 51 locations across the UK, with many more stores in the pipeline.

“Iceland celebrates its 47th anniversary next month and I have never been more excited about its prospects, and am immensely grateful for the endorsement provided by these great Awards”.