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Iceland Foods Ltd (trading as Iceland) is a British supermarket chain, which sells frozen foods, including prepared meals and vegetables. The company has an approximate 1.8% share of the UK food market. ==History== Iceland began business in 1969, when Malcolm Walker opened the first store in Leg Street, Oswestry, Shropshire, England, with his business partner Peter Hinchcliffe investing £59 for one month's rent at the store.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Iceland Group plc - Company Profile, Information, Business Description, History, Background Information on Iceland Group plc )〕 They were still employees of Woolworths at the time, and their employment was terminated once their employer discovered their job on the side. Iceland initially specialised in loose frozen food.〔 By 1977 they opened a new store in Manchester selling own labelled packaged food, and by 1978 it had 28 stores to its name.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=History of the big Food Group - Funding Universe )〕 In 1983, the business grew by purchasing the 18 stores of Bristol based St. Catherine's Freezer Centres, and in 1984 the business went public for the first time.〔 The cash investment was used to purchase South East based Orchard Frozen Foods in 1986, and the purchase of larger rival Bejam in 1988. In 1993 Iceland took over the food halls of the Littlewoods department store and also acquired the French Au Gel chain. The latter move proved unsuccessful and the stores were dropped within a year.〔 In 1996, seven stores were opened in Dublin and one in Letterkenny. They all closed down in 2005 owing to financial difficulties. The supermarket also attempted ties with British Home Stores. In May 2000, Iceland merged with Booker plc with Booker's Stuart Rose taking the role of CEO of the merged company. He left for the Arcadia Group in November 2000〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Sir Stuart Rose )〕 and was replaced by Bill Grimsey in January 2001.〔() 〕 Soon after Grimsey's appointment, Malcolm Walker, Iceland's founder and chairman, was forced to stand down as it was revealed that he had sold £13.5 million of Iceland shares five weeks before the company released the first of several profits warnings. Walker was fully cleared of these allegations in October 2004. Iceland's holding company was renamed the Big Food Group in February 2002,〔() 〕 and attempted a refocus on the convenience sector with a bid for Londis.〔()〕 Grimsey remained until the takeover and demerger of the Big Food Group by a consortium led by the Icelandic company, Baugur Group in February 2005. Walker returned to his previous role at Iceland.〔 Iceland's website has a page critical of Grimsey's period in control. After Baugur Group collapsed in 2009, a 77% stake in Iceland came into the ownership of the Icelandic banks Landsbanki and Glitnir. In 2012 the stake was purchased by a consortium including Malcolm Walker and Graham Kirkham. Since Malcolm Walker's return to the company, Iceland has reduced the workforce by 500 jobs at the Deeside head office, with approximately 300 jobs moved in September as a result of a relocation of a distribution warehouse from Deeside to Warrington. During July 2006, 300 workers took industrial action with the support of their union, blocking several lorries from entering the depot. Despite this, the transfer to Warrington took place and the new warehouse was later outsourced to DHL in April 2007. In November 2008, Iceland re-entered the Irish market, when it reopened a store in Ballyfermot in Dublin, after Iceland agreed a franchise deal with an Irish cash and carry company, AIM, and in November 2009 a second store reopened in Finglas, Dublin. A third opened on the Navan Road in September 2010. A fourth store opened in the Ilac Centre in Dublin in November 2010. There are now eight Iceland stores in Ireland.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Iceland Foods Ireland :: Store Location )〕 In January 2009, Iceland announced that it would buy 51 stores in the UK from the failed Woolworths Group chain, three days after the final 200 Woolworths stores closed their doors for the last time. In April 2009, Iceland announced plans to close its appliance showrooms by September 2009 to concentrate on food retailing.〔h〕 Iceland's sales for the year ended 27 March 2009 were £2.08 billion, a 16% increase on the previous year, with net profits of £113.7 million.〔()〕 An additional Iceland store opened in Dudley town centre on 2 December 2010 in part of the former Beatties department store, 21 years after their initial departure from the town. Iceland also operates stores in Spain and Portugal, in conjunction with Spanish-based retailer Overseas. The stores stock Iceland products as well as Waitrose's. On 28 July 2012 Iceland opened a store in Kópavogur, Iceland. Today Iceland operates 3 24/7 stores located in Kópavogur and the capital Reykjavík. Sandpiper CI has five Iceland franchise supermarkets in Jersey and two in Guernsey.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Iceland • SandpiperCI )〕 In 2013, two labs, one in Ireland and another in Germany, on behalf of the Irish state agency FSAI, identified 0.1% equine DNA in some Iceland products. Malcolm Walker caused controversy when on a BBC ''Panorama'' programme (18 February 2013) he was asked why the products had passed British tests but failed the Irish ones. He replied, "Well, that's the Irish, isn't it?".〔()〕 On 25 November 2013, Iceland acquired seven Irish stores which were previously franchised. On 27 November, Iceland began selling appliances online again in partnership with DRL Limited. In May 2014, Iceland reintroduced online shopping, which was dropped in 2007.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/sectors/retail/iceland-to-launch-click-and-collect-service/4008969.article )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Iceland (supermarket)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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