Iceland’s founding family mulls buying bigger stake
Iceland’s founder could seek to regain ownership of the supermarket when South African investment company Brait sells its stake.
Brait, which owns around 63 per cent of the frozen food specialist, said in November it plans to offload its stake in several British companies, including Iceland, in the next five years.
It will also sell stakes in New Look and Virgin Active to reduce debts.
Iceland was founded by Malcolm Walker in 1970. He owns the rest of the company along with his son and managing director Richard Walker and other management.
When asked if the retailer would attempt to regain full or near full ownership of the company, Richard Walker told Reuters that “there’s no end of options”.
Despite their minority owning, the family runs the business through a shareholders’ agreement.
Walker also said that amalgamation in the sector was “probably inevitable” despite the failure of Sainsbury’s merger with Asda last year.
Iceland is Britain’s ninth largest supermarket, but it is second in the frozen food sector.
The supermarket launched a review of its management structure in January, in a move that could see some roles axed.
Iceland said there were no plans for “major reductions” across its 25,000-strong UK workforce. It said a review had been launched to ensure it is running the “business as efficiently and economically” as possible.