Iceland to roll out Swift convenience stores

Deeside-based supermarket Iceland is planning to roll out its convenience store model across London later this year. 

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.

Second Swift store opened today (15) in Wembley. 

Hello Wembley! It’s taken a year, but Swift No. 2 was worth the wait…Al and his team have done a fantastic job 👏🏻 👏🏻 🛒 🛒 pic.twitter.com/1yqW1CYgGx

— Richard Walker (@icelandrichard) March 15, 2022

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’s boss reportedly said that it didn’t want Swift to be known for just selling frozen food.

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.

The c-stores will also offer alcohol, cigarettes and tobacco, reports said.

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.

There are currently more than 500 Iceland shops and 153 Food Warehouse branches in the UK.