Corporate Responsiblity

A responsible retailer

Iceland has always been a responsible retailer, committed to providing safe, healthy and ethically sourced food. In the 1990s, we led the whole British food retailing industry in eliminating artificial ingredients and additives from our products. We also respect the environment and seek to put something back into the communities where we operate by regenerating high streets, creating jobs, providing outstanding customer service and giving generous support to a range of Good Causes helping the sick and socially disadvantaged.

Good Food - Always

Pure food

Iceland was the first national food retailer in the world to ban genetically modified ingredients from all own brand products: a commitment we fulfilled in 1998, and which every other major UK retailer then followed. We also took the lead in removing artificial colours and flavours, which had been eliminated from all our own brand products by 1999, along with artificial preservatives where this was possible without compromising our customers’ safety. We removed hydrogenated fats from our products by 2005, and are working with our suppliers to meet the Food Standards Agency’s 2010 guidelines for salt reduction.

Safe and healthy food

At the core of the Iceland brand range is frozen food. Freezing is an entirely natural process which does not usually require the use of any preservatives. It also seals in freshness, ensuring the retention of vitamins and minerals that may be lost during the harvesting, transport and storage of fresh products. Scientific studies have repeatedly demonstrated that frozen fruit and vegetables often contain higher levels of vitamins than the equivalent products sold as ‘fresh’ at premium prices. Similarly, freezing at sea captures the taste, texture and nutritional value of fish and seafood as it is caught.

For more information on these and other advantages of frozen food, see www.thenewiceage.com

Quality and value

The benchmark for every Iceland brand product is simple: it must offer better quality than the equivalent line sold by our major British supermarket competitors, at the same price, or comparable quality at a significantly lower price. Our independent benchmarking teams regularly assess products according to a range of criteria to ensure that our high standards are being maintained.

All Iceland brand products are sourced from approved suppliers at approved sites, which must meet the British Retail Consortium (BRC)’s exacting Global Standard for Food Safety. We supplement the BRC’s site assessments with audits by our own food technologists, who have a passionate concern for food quality and safety.

The importance we attach to constant innovation has helped us to build close, long term relationships with a range of specialist supplier partners who work with us at the cutting edge of new product development. Our own technologists supervise the first production run of any new product, and our quality assurance systems include regular checks of products against our specification when they are delivered to our depots, and assessments of their performance in our own test kitchen.

Honesty and clarity

All Iceland brand products are clearly labelled on the back of our packs with a full and honest list of our ingredients, and information on their nutritional value. In the absence of an agreed national standard, we have chosen not to follow other retailers in providing a less informative ‘front of pack’ summary.

We label all our fruit and vegetables with the Department of Health’s ‘5 A Day’ logo, to remind our customers of the importance of consuming these as part of a healthy diet, and to provide an at-a-glance guide to the number of portions contained in each pack.

Full information about allergies is provided on our packs, and our policy is outlined here

Caring about animal welfare

Iceland adheres to a strict animal welfare policy.  We work with our suppliers to ensure high standards of animal welfare based on the Five Freedoms endorsed by the Farm Animal Welfare Council:

1. Freedom from hunger and thirst by ready access to fresh water and a diet to maintain full health and vigour.
2. Freedom from discomfort by providing an appropriate environment including shelter and a comfortable resting area.
3. Freedom from pain, injury or disease by prevention or rapid diagnosis and treatment.
4. Freedom to express normal behaviour by providing sufficient space, proper facilities and company of the animal's own kind.
5. Freedom from fear and distress by ensuring conditions and treatment which avoid mental suffering.

Seeking sustainability

Iceland is committed to the principles of sustainability in seafood sourcing, and we have a Fish and Seafood Sustainability and Welfare Policy for our Iceland brand suppliers to address this issue.

All suppliers of Iceland brand products must have a written Fish Sustainability Policy which is mirrored in their procurement policies and product specifications. This must outline how full traceability of all raw materials is in place and routinely verified. Additionally, checks must be in place for all raw material supplies to ensure that the fish has been caught within the legal parameters and quota management criteria. Measures must be in place to avoid over-fishing or depletion of exploited populations.

For sea-caught fish, in addition to legal quota management controls, all fish must be scientifically assessed as being caught within sustainable limits.  A risk assessment must be undertaken to identify the environmental impact of the fishing, and species must be managed in accordance with key scientific indices, with practical measures taken to maintain breeding populations which are capable of sustaining or growing the current population.  The fishing methods used must be the most selective available to minimise by-catch and the risk to marine mammals.  We do our utmost to discourage the capture of fish just prior to or during their breeding seasons.

Suppliers of Iceland brand farmed fish must have a documented Fish Welfare Policy and Environmental Management System for farms, which are routinely audited.  Key measures include ensuring the appropriate siting of all open cage sea farms, which should have been subject to an Environmental Impact Assessment; verifying that all feed is sourced from sustainable, well-managed stocks; and ensuring that suppliers adhere to appropriate maximum stocking densities.  Farms are also required to adopt the Farm Animal Welfare Council “Five Freedoms”, outlined above.

All Iceland farmed prawns are sourced from sustainably managed farms that comply with standards for mangrove protection and conservation, and address issues of habitat destruction, by-catch from wild capture, and chemical usage.

Responsible about alcohol

Most of our stores in Great Britain are licensed but this is a minor part of our offer: we are not a destination shop for alcohol.  As a service to our customers, we carry a limited range of beers, wines and spirits which are usually stocked close to our tills, under the visual supervision of our cashiers.  This is supported by CCTV monitoring in the majority of our stores as an additional protection against under-age alcohol browsing and theft.

Under the licensing regulations in England and Wales, each store manager undertakes training to the Government-recognised Level 2 licensing qualification provided by the British Institute of Innkeeping, and is licensed by the appropriate local authority as our Designated Premises Supervisor.  It is our policy to train two other members of staff in each store to the same standard, ensuring that a fully qualified person is present on the premises at all times. 

Similarly rigorous training is undertaken by the managers and staff of our Scottish stores to meet the requirements of the licensing regulations in Scotland.

All members of our store staff are given training on the sale of alcohol as part of their induction programme, and this training is refreshed every six months. 

At the point of sale we operate a strict “Challenge 25” policy, requiring any customer who appears to be under the age of 25 to produce appropriate proof of their age and identity: a driving licence, passport or a card from another Government-approved scheme.   We keep a log in our stores of people who have been challenged and refused service, and this is open to inspection by the Trading Standards and licensing authorities.  Any failure by our staff to comply with company policies on the sale of alcohol is treated as a most serious disciplinary matter.

Protecting our environment

Iceland respects the environment.  Our efforts to reduce our environmental impact are co-ordinated by a cross-functional team, working closely with external partners including the Carbon Trust, WRAP and the British Retail Consortium Environmental Policy Action Group.

Reducing our carbon footprint

In March 2010 Iceland was officially certified as having attained the Carbon Trust Standard, after achieving a 15% reduction in carbon emissions relative to turnover over the three year assessment period, and an absolute reduction in emissions of 2%.

Some of the successful environmental projects that enabled Iceland to achieve the Carbon Trust Standard include the installation of more energy-efficient lighting and air conditioning equipment in our stores, and the replacement of energy-intensive remote refrigeration equipment with integral line freezers complete with lids to limit warm air ingress. 

We have developed a new control strategy for our store heating and air conditioning requirements, designed to ensure that we never waste energy by heating and cooling the same area at the same time.  The new system also optimises efficiency by establishing separate day and night temperature settings within our stores; this maximises the intake of fresh air while the stores are closed, which also improves the efficiency of our in-store equipment.

Iceland always specifies equipment and components that operate with the minimum of power. We have a robust monitoring and targeting system that collects half hourly data at all our stores to identify possible areas of electricity waste.  Where the need is identified, stores are surveyed and energy saving projects undertaken.  These include lighting control upgrades using passive infrared sensors and photocells.

We set high energy efficiency specifications for our 70 new stores opened during 2009/10, which are achieving energy consumption 10-15% below our estate average. 

At our head office in Deeside we have installed motion sensor lighting to avoid wastefully lighting unoccupied rooms.

We have signed a Climate Change Agreement with DEFRA covering all our distribution centres, under which we have committed to achieve a cut in energy consumption of 12% by 2013. 

Our vehicle fleet is regularly renewed with the aim of maximising fuel economy and minimising emissions.  Our policy is to replace vehicles after five years’ service and all our new trucks meet the Euro 5 standard, which is the highest for minimising vehicle emissions.  Speed limiters are set to 53mph to conserve energy and auto shutdown mechanisms are fitted to trucks if their engines are left idling for more than three minutes.  We are undertaking trials of trailers with aerodynamic side kits to improve efficiency.

Iceland has also consistently adopted forward-thinking policies aimed at minimising the environmental impact of refrigerants through careful selection of appropriate materials and the thorough maintenance of equipment.

Minimising waste and promoting recycling

Among the key advantages of frozen food is the fact that it is easy to keep and easy to use: there is no mess, no waste and no fuss.  This offers significant environmental advantages compared with fresh and chilled food, where waste is endemic.  The Energy Saving Trust estimates that up to a third of the food bought in the UK ends up being thrown away.

Our policy requires that all Iceland brand packaging is minimal.  Our suppliers are encouraged to reduce the weight and size of packaging as far as possible, while ensuring that the product is not damaged in transit and is able to retain its full shelf life.  The longer shelf life of frozen food, and the fact that it is stored in the freezer until used, means that it creates less waste packaging than fresh and chilled products.

Iceland is a signatory to the Courtauld Commitment on packaging and food waste reduction, working with WRAP (Waste and Resources Action Programme).  We have achieved the objective of designing out packaging waste growth by 2008 and are on track to deliver an absolute reduction in packaging waste by 2010, despite the substantial increase in our sales due to our store expansion programme.

Re-usable carrier bags are available in all our stores and are heavily promoted, while we no longer stock heavy gauge freezer bags.

Each of our four distribution depots is set up to maximise the opportunities for recycling, and each has a recycle centre specifically set up for this purpose.  All outer shrinkwrap is collected from each pallet delivered to Iceland by our suppliers, and collated for recycling.  There is also a back haul system in operation to ensure that all outer cardboard cases are returned from our stores to the distribution centres, where they are collated for recycling.

At our head office we collect and recycle paper, cardboard and printer toner cartridges; shrinkwrap and cardboard from our test kitchen; and cans and polybottles from our staff restaurant.

Against commercial whaling

Iceland is a long term supporter of the campaign to ban whaling and we were very public in our refusal to buy prawns from Norway for many years as a protest against their involvement in whaling.  We remain strong supporters of the cause and in 2007 we wrote to the Icelandic Prime Minister reaffirming our opposition to commercial whaling and to whale support groups expressing our support for their cause.

For more information on whaling and how you can help please visit www.campaign-whale.org

Supporting our communities

Iceland has a presence in over 700 communities throughout the UK, typically on the high street.  During our financial year to March 2010 we opened more than 70 new stores, 50 of which were converted from redundant Woolworths outlets.  This has not only created more than 3,000 new jobs, but has played a major part in helping to regenerate high streets and communities throughout the country.

We aim to create a real family atmosphere in our stores, with a commitment to helpful, friendly service that extends into our customers’ homes through our unique home delivery service.  This is especially valued by families without access to a car for shopping, and by the elderly.

All our 21,000 employees have the opportunity to participate in voluntary charitable activities during working hours without loss of pay.  Our principal adopted charity is the ARUK, but we also support other Good Causes including The Prostate Cancer Charity and Save The Family.

Caring for people

A Great Place to Work

At Iceland, although we believe that business should be fun, we can be serious: Serious about Staff, Serious about Service and Serious about Standards.  These core values underpin everything we do to communicate with our people, respond to their views and recognise and reward outstanding performance.

Our commitment to making Iceland A Great Place to Work has been independently recognised by the Sunday Times ‘Best Companies to Work For’ survey, which ranked us 13th overall in the 2010 table of the 25 Best Big Companies to Work For.  This is a move up from 14th place in 2009, when Iceland was assessed for the first time.  We are particularly proud to be the only food retailer among the top 25.

Iceland beat every other big company in the survey when employees were asked whether they received a Fair Deal, with 65% saying that they were happy with their pay and benefits.  We also came top of the class when employees were asked if they felt that they were spending too much time at work, with 64% saying that they did not.  Overall we ranked eighth for Wellbeing, covering stress and pressure in the workplace, with 68% of our people saying that they were happy with their work-life balance. 

Setting high standards

Iceland sources products from around the world to ensure tremendous value for our customers – but without compromising on the high standards they are entitled to expect from our brand.  All overseas suppliers are rigorously monitored to ensure that they comply with internationally recognised standards to protect the health and welfare of their employees. 

In the UK, Iceland is a signatory to the Gangmasters Licensing Authority (GLA) standard, and has worked closely with the GLA since it was established in 2005 to stamp out worker exploitation and rogue gangmasters and agency providers in the agriculture and shellfish industries.  Iceland has been active both in contributing to the revised GLA Supermarket protocol, and in communicating it to its suppliers.