Sorry Icelanders, the name is ours!

MALCOLM Walker, the boss of the Iceland stores group, has escalated his company’s row with the nation of Iceland over the use of the name suggesting: ‘We’ve got more of a claim than they have.’

It emerged last week that the Icelandic Government was considering a legal claim over the name used by Walker’s stores group.

Speaking out last night for the first time since the spat erupted Walker said: ‘We’ve been trading the name for 45 years. What possible hope have they got? We’ve got five million customers every week – they’ve got 300,000 people living there.

‘So we’ve got more of a claim on the name than they have. The name is ours really.’

He said it is not the first row over the issue.

‘This is something that comes up every few years, it’s all a bit of a joke. I think there’s an election coming up – it’s a bit of a PR stunt for them,’ he said. The row has a further irony because the Icelandic Government actually owned the food stores group four years ago.

The stores chain ended up in the hands of Iceland’s nationalised banks after a financial collapse at previous owner, Icelandic investor Baugur.

Walker, who founded the group in 1969, eventually led a bid to retake full control of the company in 2012.

Relations between the stores group and the island nation have been more cordial in the past. Walker said he once escorted the Icelandic prime minister on a tour of the chain’s shops during a London visit.

But those relations have turned chilly after Walker’s company tried to block the country and its national firms registering trademarks ‘using the word Iceland in their names or logos’ in the UK and EU.

A source familiar with the legal complexities said: ‘We hope this can be sorted out with good humour and in a statesmanlike manner.’