Lobsters lift Iceland sales

BOOMING demand for seafood and luxury meats helped Iceland outpace its rivals.

The supermarket boasted rising sales and profits after winning over customers with its fish range and rolling out a marketing campaign to change perceptions of frozen food.

Iceland said its luxury meat range – including Chateaubriand, Gaucho rump steak and rose veal saltimbocca – had performed strongly. Its whole lobsters, which sell for £6, and fish fillet range, also did well. Sales across the business were up 4.4pc to £2.8bn in the year to March 24, while same store sales increased 2pc, an improvement from a 2.7pc decline the year before. Earnings rose 6.3pc to £160m.

Rival Sainsbury’s reported a 0.6pc fall in same store sales in 2017 while Tesco reported a 0.9pc increase in like-for-like sales.

Founder and chairman Malcolm Walker, 70, said: ‘After a record Christmas, Iceland ended the financial year with its best- ever product offer, strengthened management, high morale and growing confidence in our ability to achieve continued growth by simply being ourselves: a unique British business focused on high quality, innovative and exciting food, with a real commitment to contributing to the communities in which we operate.’

Iceland is now targeting the family BBQ with its extended range, which includes red shrimps, steak miso burgers and purple fries.