// Iceland officially opens doors to its new Swift convenience store in Newcastle
// The store is a trial and if successful Iceland may roll it out to 1000 sites around the UK
// The new Swift shop offers double the range of the former small Iceland store on which it is located
Iceland has officially opened the doors to its new convenience supermarket format under the Swift brand.
The trial store opened today at the former Iceland Four Lane Ends site in Benton, Newcastle upon Tyne.
The frozen food retailer said Swift is an entirely new concept that was designed to provide an easy-to-shop grocery store with the watchwords “Fast. Fresh. Local”.
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The 1700sq ft store – which saw 12 Iceland employees keep their jobs after the shop refit – offers double the range of the former small Iceland store, with nearly 3000 lines across grocery, chilled, fresh, frozen, alcohol, cigarettes and tobacco and food-to-go.
Iceland said the new layout of the Swift concept “breaks down the traditional barriers between frozen and chilled food to provide a complete range of meal solutions”.
Should the trial store be successful, Iceland said it would consider rolling out the concept to almost 1000 sites around the UK.
News of the Swift concept first emerged earlier this week when Iceland managing director Richard Walker tweeted a picture of himself outside then yet-opened store that had the Swift logo emblazoned on it, as well on his face mask.
“Swift has a focus on being fast, fresh and local,” Walker said today.
“Our last ‘one store trial’ of a new store format was The Food Warehouse in 2014 and we now have 140 stores.
“If this trial resonates with consumers there is potential to expand it both within the existing Iceland store estate and beyond to expand our existing network of stores in almost 1000 communities across the UK.”
Iceland had registered the Swift trademark last year, but at the time it led to speculation the frozen food retailer was planning a new rapid delivery service.
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