Iceland is planning to roll out its Swift convenience store model across London later this year, according to managing director Richard Walker.
The frozen food specialist has confirmed that four more Swift stores will be opening in the UK’s capital city over the coming months, although it remains unclear where the stores will be based.
Iceland opened its first Swift convenience store in Newcastle last year as part of a trial and is now looking to extend the successful format across the rest of the UK. As part of that launch, Iceland told The Grocer that it didn’t want Swift to be known for just selling frozen food.
Read more: Iceland backtracks on plastic-free pledge
Swift carries a full ambient, chilled and fresh grocery range in addition to frozen produce. It also places more focus on ready-to-eat food than the traditional Iceland supermarket model, placing it in a strong position to challenge Tesco Express and Sainsbury’s Local stores.
It will also offer alcohol, cigarettes and tobacco.
The new format will allow the business to convert stores from its core Iceland supermarket estate, as it focuses its expansion plans on sister chain The Food Warehouse.
The has reported better like-for-like sales performance and a more efficient format than core Iceland stores.
There are currently more than 500 Iceland shops and 153 Food Warehouse branches in the UK.
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