Summer sun has Iceland basking

SIZZLING sales of soft drinks, beer and ice cream during the summer heatwave enabled Iceland, the core frozen food division of Big Food Group, to post an operating profit of £3m in the 24 weeks to 12 September against a loss of £6.9m a year earlier.

Cash-and-carry division Booker, which serves thousands of corner shops, also benefited from the sunshine with non-tobacco sales up 1.6%. Tobacco sales rose 0.7% on a like-for-like basis.

Woodward Foodservice, which delivers to hotels and restaurants from national distribution centres, increased its sales by 19% but still doubled losses to £2.2m. It is absorbing expansion costs.

Big Food's overall pre-tax profits rose to £5.6m from £4.9m and the interim dividend is increased to 1.1p from 1p.

However, chief executive Bill Grimsey warned that there may be tougher times ahead. 'Further industry consolidation following the report in September by the Competition Commission will see further price competitiveness over the coming months,' he said.

Grimsey plans to continue championing the cause of the corner shop by complaining again to the Office of Fair Trading about the alleged monopoly position created by the supermarket chains.