Iceland is set to close all of its Swift convenience stores as it looks to focus on the rollout of its new ‘Local’ sites.
Four of the five stores, which are located in Finsbury Park, Wembley, Hounslow, Archway and Four Lanes End in Newcastle, will be shut down, while one will be converted into a standard Iceland store, The Grocer reported.
All staff working in the Swift stores will be offered a transfer to a nearby Iceland store with the same working hours.
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The company’s executive chairman, Richard Walker, told The Grocer that the Swift format with separate branding “didn’t work,” adding “the Iceland logo and brand is really well thought of and recognised in London and we must never underestimate that.”
In March, the grocery retailer opened the doors to its first Iceland Local convenience store on a Texaco garage forecourt in Fallings Park, Wolverhampton.
The store is owned and managed by forecourt operator SGN Retail and includes chilled, ambient and frozen aisles with own-label items and products from the frozen food retailers partnerships with Slimming Wold, Myprotein and Harry Ramsden’s.
