Iceland is to push back its autumn range as unseasonal warm weather in September becomes more commonplace.
The frozen food specialist’s executive chair Richard Walker, told The Guardian that Iceland has decided to delay the launch of its seasonal range – which features products including pies, pastries and other autumnal favourites supported by seasonal promotional activity – by two weeks, to mid-September.
“We have decided to push it back because the UK is getting wetter, cooler summers and warmer Septembers,” he told the publication.
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“Last summer was a washout and it makes it hard with seasonal plans,” he said before adding that this year’s “terrible weather” in early summer and unpredictable weather in July had made the planning of the frozen food retailer’s seasonal range especially challenging.
It is understood that Iceland is currently the only grocer to be postponing its autumn range, with Sainsbury’s commenting that it has always launched its autumnal food range mid-September, while Waitrose added that its own range uses a “dynamic ordering system” for its stores supplies, which can be adjusted in accordance to weather forecasts.
Walker’s comments come as other areas of the food and drinks industry have been impacted by the UK’s erratic weather. Earlier this year, an initial delay in the strawberry harvest was met with a surprise bumper harvest, spurred by the wet to warm weather during the summer months.
