UK supermarket chain Iceland has reportedly abandoned its decade-long brand battle with Iceland and instead promised a “closer discount” for shoppers in the country.
After the budget supermarket chain suffered its third legal loss last year, its chief executive, Richard Walker, said on Wednesday he would end the dispute.
He told the Financial Times that he would take “the two hundred thousand dollars that we would have spent on legal fees in the fourth and final round in the EU court and re-apply it to a discount for reaching out to the good people of Iceland. It’s something I’m going to do.”
The discount is expected to take the form of shopping vouchers that Icelanders can use at frozen food retail stores.
Iceland’s government first took legal action against its eponymous British supermarket chain over the use of its name in 2016. It challenged its exclusive ownership of the European-wide trademark registration for the word Iceland, which it said prevented companies in the country from promoting goods and services abroad.
In July last year, the EU general court upheld a ruling canceling the grocer’s EU trademark registration for the word Iceland. The court reaffirmed that geographical names must remain available for public use.
Walker told the Financial Times: “We lost for the third time. We’re going to throw in the towel. Actually, it’s okay, we don’t have to change our name.” But he expressed concern that “other people now have the ability to open stores and call it Iceland and stock Icelandic products.”
The executive took over the leadership of Iceland in 2023 after his father, Malcolm Walker, resigned from the frozen food chain he co-founded in 1970. Richard Walker, previously a Conservative supporter, was recently appointed as a Labor peer by Keir Starmer, and was also named the government’s cost of living champion a month ago.
The company, based in Deeside, Wales, is privately owned by businessman Malcolm Walker and its chief executive Tarsem Dhaliwal, who joined in 1985 as a trainee accountant.
It had a long spell on the London Stock Exchange from 1984 and was renamed The Big Food Group, but returned to family control in 2012 after a £1.45bn management buyout led by Malcolm Walker and South African investment group Brait. Walker and Dhaliwal purchased Brait in June 2020.
The company grew from a single store selling frozen foods in Oswestry, Shropshire, and now has over 900 stores across the UK, trading under the Iceland and The Food Warehouse names. It also owns Individual Restaurants, whose brands include Piccolino and Restaurant Bar & Grill.
Iceland has been contacted for comment.
