Bargain supermarket with 900 stores to cease trading at town centre site in days
A BARGAIN supermarket with over 900 stores will cease trading at one town centre site in days.
Iceland is pulling down the shutters on one of its store in Exeter, Devon.
The site, which is located at Alphington Road Retail Park, will cease trading permanently on January 4.
Exeter’s two other Iceland stores – in Sidwell Street in the city centre, and The Food Warehouse by Iceland, in Marsh Barton Road – are unaffected.
It is understood that Aldi will expand into the space currently occupied by Iceland in Alphington Road, according to reports by DevonLive.
An Iceland insider told the publication: “We knew the store was closing from the first few months of this year.
“The store has done really well but Aldi is expanding into the space.
“So the store will be permanently closing on January 4. Staff will be moving to Sidwell Street, The Food Warehouse or other Iceland stores.”
Retailers often close under-performing stores to relocate to areas with higher demand or over failure to renew the lease on the building.
The latest closure brings the total number of Iceland stores that have shut since last year to 25.
But it’s not all doom and gloom as the frozen foods specialist has set its sights on opening 250 new food warehouses.
The supermarket chain is looking to expand across the UK, specifically in Brighton, Crawley, Dundee and Salisbury.
Iceland is ramping up its expansion plans in the suburban areas of Glasgow, London, Manchester and Newcastle.
The supermarket chain first launched its Food Warehouse stores, which are three times the size of a traditional Iceland shop, in 2014 as an experiment.
The number of Food Warehouses has since exceeded 200, with the majority in retail parks.
You can find your closest stores by visiting thefoodwarehouse.com/store-locator/.
Why are retailers closing shops?
EMPTY shops have become an eyesore on many British high streets and are often symbolic of a town centre’s decline.
The Sun’s business editor Ashley Armstrong explains why so many retailers are shutting their doors.
In many cases, retailers are shutting stores because they are no longer the money-makers they once were because of the rise of online shopping.
Falling store sales and rising staff costs have made it even more expensive for shops to stay open. In some cases, retailers are shutting a store and reopening a new shop at the other end of a high street to reflect how a town has changed.
The problem is that when a big shop closes, footfall falls across the local high street, which puts more shops at risk of closing.
Retail parks are increasingly popular with shoppers, who want to be able to get easy, free parking at a time when local councils have hiked parking charges in towns.
Many retailers including Next and Marks & Spencer have been shutting stores on the high street and taking bigger stores in better-performing retail parks instead.
Boss Stuart Machin recently said that when it relocated a tired store in Chesterfield to a new big store in a retail park half a mile away, its sales in the area rose by 103 per cent.
In some cases, stores have been shut when a retailer goes bust, as in the case of Wilko, Debenhams Topshop, Dorothy Perkins and Paperchase to name a few.
What’s increasingly common is when a chain goes bust a rival retailer or private equity firm snaps up the intellectual property rights so they can own the brand and sell it online.
They may go on to open a handful of stores if there is customer demand, but there are rarely ever as many stores or in the same places.
BACK IN PROFIT
Iceland Foods returned to profitability after a tough year of cost-cutting in 2023/24.
The frozen food specialist reported its best financial performance ever, with sales up 6.5% to £4.1billion for the year ending 29 March 2024.
Profits reached £15.6million, a significant turnaround from the previous year’s £16.2million loss.
Iceland implemented cost-cutting measures across its stores, online operations, and supply chain to achieve this.
This included renegotiating supplier contracts, closing unprofitable stores, and installing energy-efficient freezers.
At the same time, the supermarket expanded its range of affordable products, particularly its £1 or Less line, which proved popular with customers looking to save money.
Iceland also opened a new distribution centre in Warrington and revamped its online delivery service to enhance efficiency and customer experience.
These measures helped Iceland offset rising costs, particularly energy costs, which global events had impacted.
In the previous year, Iceland had even cancelled its Christmas advert to reinvest savings into lower prices for customers.
How to save money on your food shop
Consumer reporter Sam Walker reveals how you can save hundreds of pounds a year:
Odd boxes – plenty of retailers offer slightly misshapen fruit and veg or surplus food at a discounted price.
Lidl sells five kilos of fruit and veg for just £1.50 through its Waste Not scheme while Aldi shoppers can get Too Good to Go bags which contain £10 worth of all kinds of products for £3.30.
Sainsbury’s also sells £2 “Taste Me, Don’t Waste Me” fruit and veg boxes to help shoppers reduced food waste and save cash.
Food waste apps – food waste apps work by helping shops, cafes, restaurants and other businesses shift stock that is due to go out of date and passing it on to members of the public.
Some of the most notable ones include Too Good to Go and Olio.
Too Good to Go’s app is free to sign up to and is used by millions of people across the UK, letting users buy food at a discount.
Olio works similarly, except users can collect both food and other household items for free from neighbours and businesses.
Yellow sticker bargains – yellow sticker bargains, sometimes orange and red in certain supermarkets, are a great way of getting food on the cheap.
But what time to head out to get the best deals varies depending on the retailer. You can see the best times for each supermarket here.
Super cheap bargains – sign up to bargain hunter Facebook groups like Extreme Couponing and Bargains UK where shoppers regularly post hauls they’ve found on the cheap, including food finds.
“Downshift” – you will almost always save money going for a supermarket’s own-brand economy lines rather than premium brands.
The move to lower-tier ranges, also known as “downshifting” and hailed by consumer expert Martin Lewis, could save you hundreds of pounds a year on your food shop.