Frozen foods group Iceland today said it would be expanding its new call centre operation to handle the flood of shoppers it expects to use its new home delivery service.
The group, which boasts it sells one in four frozen chickens bought in the UK, said its nationwide telephone home order service would be launched this year.
It is expanding its new Deeside call centre to cope with enquiries, employing around 150 full time staff.
News of the project came as the company reported a pre-tax profit for the year to January 3 of £, down from £56.2m for the same period the previous year. Turnover improved from £1.4bn to £1.6bn.
But the figures included £6m of one-off costs and a one-off interest charge of £8m, following last year’s changes in its share structure.
Chairman and chief executive Malcolm Walker said demand for home shopping had been strong in the second half of the year, especially over Christmas.
He said:”There is no doubt that the service has increased sales to our existing customers, and is also attracting new customers who have never shopped at Iceland before.”
Home shopping by telephone is being tested in Chester, Portsmouth, Edinburgh and the Tyne Tees TV region. In March it was launched in East Anglia and was expected to be expanded to the rest of the country this year.
Referring to the share price rise of nearly 9% this morning, Mr Walker said: “The stock market thought we were running out of steam but seeing the success of our home delivery service they have re-rated us.”
“Without doubt this is the shopping of the future. Some analyst have said it will make up 5% to 20% of the European groceries market in 10 years.”
The Deeside, Clwyd-based group opened 14 new stores and refurbished 80 shops over the period. It also expanded its appliance sales, opening 50 new showrooms.
While several hundred part time jobs would be created from the opening of 14 new stores this year, a further 100 full time jobs would be created in Barnsley when Iceland opens a new cold storage facility, Mr Walker said.
As well as the new home shopping formats, the store was testing three convenience store-style Iceland shops in London and would open a further four shops in the coming weeks, he said.
They would be rebranded Iceland Extra and sell a mixture of frozen foods and conventional groceries.
Mr Walker said they were still in the trail stages and margins were currently not high enough for a full launch.
PA News 25/03/98
