Episode 1 Iceland Foods: Life in The Freezer Cabinet

Meet Malcolm Walker,

chief executive of Iceland supermarkets.

-How would you describe yourself as a businessman?

-Cowboy.

Malcolm, smile, please!

Right, what's going on, then?

It's a place where the boss takes his staff on luxury holidays.

ALL CHEER

I always believe that having fun is a big part of why we are so successful.

-MC:

-It's the Iceland Incentive!

It's a Hummer.

So just imagine that parked outside your store.

It's been voted the happiest company to work for in a national poll.

Good morning!

I've never worked in a place like Iceland.

I hope to never work in a place that is not like Iceland.

Malcolm started his company

from a handful of freezers in Shropshire.

Now, 25,000 staff provide low-cost frozen food

to more than four million families every week.

I'm in love with all our customers,

because they give me everything I've got.

They pay for my car, my house, my holidays...

Last year, the banks put the company up for sale.

Our colleagues didn't feel any fear,

because it's almost Malcolm's baby.

Malcolm and his top team gambled a billion pounds

to buy the company back.

But competition is fierce.

The big supermarkets are stealing Malcolm's customers.

We believed that nobody could copy our secret weapon,

and then suddenly they all did.

There's a price war on the high street

and a food scandal on the horizon.

Has Malcolm bitten off more than he can chew?

Look, this is war.

If you think about it,

people's livelihoods are at stake here.

-That's fine.

-OK?

-Yeah.

Malcolm Walker, CEO of Iceland Foods,

is a self-made multimillionaire.

Is it an accident that you become an entrepreneur?

I don't know.

I think it's in your personality.

If I'd done well at school...

because I like to tell everybody I've got only the woodwork.

Actually, I've got four O-levels.

But if I'd done really well at school, I would've got a proper job,

wouldn't I, and I'd have been an accountant or a lawyer.

But because I went the other way,

maybe I would either have been

a delinquent or an entrepreneur.

That's in your DNA.

You can't help it.

As my mother used to say,

my problem was big, better, best.

Never let it rest

till your big is bigger and your better, best.

Malcolm made his fortune

selling frozen food at low prices.

His company sells 100 million ready meals every year,

most at £2 or less.

Their hits include the doner kebab pizza

and frozen chicken fillets.

But this year, there's trouble. Sales are flat.

Rival supermarkets are muscling in on their territory.

Tesco, 30% of the market or more,

and we're two. So we are tiny.

We have to fight the big boys.

It's David and Goliath.

It's probably a good thing

to portray yourself to the staff in that role.

With the music, let's bring ourselves up again. Heads last. Go.

Ticket sales moving again,

Malcolm's relying on his secret weapon...

-You know you make me want to...

-ALL:

-Shout!

..his staff.

And go.

# And it's Iceland service

# All around every store...

Here we go!

# That will light up the high street... #

Every year, Malcolm spends millions

on an extravaganza for his managers.

I just cannot tell you how strongly I feel

about this motivational aspect of running the business.

-MC:

-It's the Iceland Incentive!

Malcolm's motivational conferences

are a long-standing tradition.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Mr Jason Donovan and our Iceland Mums.

CANCAN MUSIC

-MC:

-Ladies and gentlemen of Iceland,

welcome to Dublin.

Winter is when the company makes most of its profits.

With Christmas only eight weeks away,

leading the urgent push to boost sales

are Malcolm's right-hand men...

Nigel Broadhurst...

Christmas, my arse.

..and Nick Canning.

Hope I'm not too late to see

just what you've got planned for Christmas this year.

The market is only increasing in size

very, very slowly at the moment.

So, in order to grow sales,

they have to be stolen from somebody else.

I think entrepreneurs are quite an unhappy lot, really,

because you're always wanting more.

-Are you unhappy?

-Yeah.

But I'll be happy tomorrow,

when the sales are a bit better.

Malcolm believes there's only one way to get sales flying...

a staff incentive on a grand scale.

This will be amazing.

He's giving a luxury trip to his top managers

and £10,000 to their staff,

hand-delivered by Malcolm.

So how about that?

I told you I was Father Christmas,

and there's just one more thing now that we've got to do.

# We aim to give customers more than the rest...

# A bonus cut saving makes Iceland the best. #

-ALL:

-# And it's Iceland service

# All around every store

# That will light up the high street... #

Go back to your stores now

and just share some of the magic that we've experienced this last few days.

Be great leaders.

Deliver great service.

Ewood, Lancashire.

A suburb on the outskirts of Blackburn.

Home to one of the company's 800 stores.

Right, let's get this show on the road.

-Hi, how are you?

-All right, how are you?

Not so bad, thank you.

The company prides itself on its low turnover of staff.

Store manager Craig has been here for 16 years.

You've got to have the desire to do the job.

You've got to have the energy and the enthusiasm.

That then rubs off onto the store team,

and that's what delivers you results,

and that's what delivers exceptional service at every level.

OK, guys, first of all, I just want to say a massive, massive thank you

for all the Ewood elves turning up tonight.

-Are the Ewood elves going to do it tonight?

-Yes!

Thank you very much, thank you.

Craig is back from the conference

with news of Malcolm's Christmas competition.

One, two, three.

£500 will go to the best-decorated store,

but Malcolm's big cash prize

will reward the branch with the best service.

So he's faced onto t'customers, really.

Happy customers are encouraged to go online to send a "WOW"

for their local store.

Why don't we put a big "WOW" all the way down there? Yeah?

The stores with the most WOWs win £10,000.

It just keeps the team motivated,

and a bit of competition among the team.

Some of the guys in store will ask me questions like,

"Where's your WOWs?"

So I have to step my game up as well.

Craig's shopfloor staff are paid £6.90 an hour

and they're recruited for their personalities.

He's relying on their charms to put his store on top.

Like ex-Avon lady, Jackie.

See, if I won the lottery,

I still turn up just to get on everybody's nerves, you see?

Just every now and then, yeah, I'd still turn up.

'One thing they enforce and they get across is,

'you bring your personality to work.'

You don't leave it on the doorstep.

You bring it over the doorstep.

That's the beauty of it.

You get paid to be yourself.

You're just playing me up for a soft touch here, aren't you?

He's grinning now.

Jackie's been working with her friend Janette for two years.

You're ruining my photograph.

'Both my daughters worked here previously,'

and I was made redundant

from being a special needs assistant.

Because me daughters talked about the positions that they had

in the store and that they enjoyed it,

I applied and I got the job.

Everybody works together.

They all look after you.

We all pull together.

We can be very competitive with each other.

Ewood is competing with more than 150 stores in the region,

including Cheetham Hill in Manchester.

26-year-old Nat has been working at the company for four years,

since she was made redundant from Somerfield.

Everyone has a lot of pride in their own shop.

-We're all competitive with each other.

-Higher, the other side.

-We don't like certain shops.

-Pull it!

Certain shops think that we're a bit...common.

They're not wrong, we are, but we're nice common.

Anthony studied interior design at college.

He hopes to give his store the edge.

It's going high up, but...

Who are your big competition?

We think Ewood.

-Why?

-Just because...

Because they've got a sleigh.

Yeah, they've got a big sled.

We have a good, strong team,

and we're like a family.

It's like an extension of our family.

If Cheetham Hill wins the most WOWs,

Nat will get almost £700 extra in her pay packet.

Me and me husband work full-time.

I work nearly full-time,

and we struggle a lot, money-wise.

If we won, I'd spend it on me daughter.

But wowing the customers in Cheetham Hill

will be a challenge.

Our trolleys have got the big poles on top

so that the customers can't just walk out with them

and never come back.

This is what Cheetham Hill's like. They just try and steal things.

If they can get away with it, they will.

Pawn shop out there last week

was put through with a sledgehammer.

The company opens most of its stores on local high streets,

often in areas of high unemployment like Cheetham Hill.

It's not that bad. The people are all dead friendly.

You just get the occasional nutter.

Company headquarters in Deeside, North Wales.

You've seen the rhino?

Bizarre, innit?

With only 2% of the market,

the company has to work hard to hold on to customers.

They know if sales are to recover,

they can't afford to lose shoppers.

Iceland Customer Care, Alison speaking, how can I help?

Complaints are fielded by the call centre at HQ.

Right.

I'm sorry about this. We'll get it sorted for you.

What's your postcode, please?

I can look into this for you now.

Every complaint has to be weighed on its merits.

A customer called customer services to report that his pizza

had no topping,

and during the call, it actually turned out

that he'd got it upside down.

The customer rang at Christmas,

wanted to know how to cook his "bastard chicken".

What he actually meant was how does he cook his "basted chicken"?

We had ice cream's that melted into quite a rude shape

as they were melting,

and we did have customers complaining they look like willies.

If we've all had a good day, we're all a bit giddy anyway.

Anything can set you off.

Once they're logged,

complaints are handed over to tae kwon do champion Trish,

who's responsible for putting things right.

Hi, guys.

'You don't join a technical department to be popular.'

I'm annoying and fiery,

and I know that.

But the good point, I think,

is that I have got perseverance.

-Have we got a product?

-I think we've got a few.

-Yeah?

There's been a complaint

about one of the company's £1 ready meals.

So, six chicken light or nonexistent.

Obviously, not enough chicken in there is an issue,

so we'll take a look at that.

Just to mention as well, there has been a Trading Standards complaint

about it, saying there wasn't any chicken in it.

So we can see straightaway there is chicken.

Would we like to compare it to the pack, show us?

Which has got a lot of chicken.

The trouble with me is,

I have high personal standards

and I won't work for a company who doesn't have high ethics as well.

So I wouldn't be employed by somebody who didn't want

a technical manager who wanted to do the right things.

These people are passionate enough to have taken the time

to write and tell us about something.

If we just kind of go, "Yeah, whatever,"

then it's a wasted opportunity to put something right.

So we're calling this, "Perfect...4 lamb chops."

So you're spending £4 on this product,

and there's a lot of fat going on there on that plate

for four quid in Iceland.

A little bit fatty, but as a chump chop, you do get that.

It's the next muscle down from your loin.

It's basically the top of your backside.

-It's that bit on the top there.

-So this is lamb backside?

-This is a lamb rump.

-OK.

-Not lamb backside.

-OK, sorry.

Now, you might look at it and think that's how it should be.

But actually the picture is giving me a different impression.

Trish can remove products from the shelves within hours

if she feels they're not up to scratch.

So will we keep an eye on complaints, Warren?

And hopefully we will be able to hang fire until September,

but if complaints go too pear-shaped, we may need to talk about timing.

-Yeah.

-OK, thank you.

For all retailers, making sure they are selling the right thing

to the public requires constant vigilance.

So this is a bit of a kind of relaxed-looking bird as well, isn't it?

Trish knows only too well how quick the press are to grab

the opportunity to create headlines.

We've had horrible complaints,

and we've been in like the newspaper whereby they found a bat

in some frozen veg and they went to the newspaper saying,

"Bat's why mums go to Iceland."

So it's like it really catches the imaginations.

So that is a bit of a difficult one.

Defending the image of the company

often falls to its PR consultant of 30 years, Keith Hann.

Hello! Goodbye.

Well, this is apparently a parody

of an Iceland ad from Shooting Stars.

It's my birthday, and I'm 54!

And the rest.

Martin's just been released on bail.

Cool.

Celebrate with sticky lasagne...

sticky peas...

Mm. Part-baked sticky discs.

But what's that topping?

Hydrogenised tomato-flavoured dust.

A penny each!

How much did you pay for this incredible feast?

Just under £4.

And it's better than real food.

Celebrate with Coldland.

Coldland.

Well, that was most amusing.

What could one possibly say?

Iceland doesn't sell shit food.

It's gone to greater lengths than most

to take artificial shit out of its food.

There's no logical reason why a frozen ready meal

should be of lower quality than a fresh one,

and it will always be better value than a fresh one,

because if you're making lasagnes for Marks & Spencer,

you have to make the damn things every day,

because they sell them fresh.

So, every day you have to close the production line down,

you have to clean it...

Whereas the frozen product,

you can do one long production run,

one batch every two or three weeks.

It's intrinsically going to be better value,

because the cost of doing it is lower.

Iceland is a classic British institution

that half the country loves

and half the country hates.

People who work for it love it.

Its customers, by and large, love it.

But the other half of the population absolutely hate it

without ever having, in most cases,

ever been in a shop or bought a product.

Why do you think that is?

In a word, snobbery.

To boost sales, Malcolm has charged his top team to come up

with more original food ideas

to bring in new customers.

Buying director Nigel Broadhurst is the taste buds of the company.

Nigel Broadhurst started with us 100 years ago

as our first or second buyer.

Iceland is in his DNA.

It's what he's good at.

If the product is not right and the price isn't right,

then we're dead.

There aren't many people that are indispensable.

But I think Nigel is.

Trouble is, he knows it.

Oh, no, not for me.

Look at that one, a slither of chicken.

I mean, come on.

It's like wallpaper paste in texture.

Nigel is setting his sights

on the flagship party fare range.

Iceland cornered the market with their frozen buffet finger food,

but now their bigger rivals are selling competing party ranges.

The man who brought us chocolate strawberries

and frozen sandwiches needs something new.

Ah! Whoo!

This is vanilla custard with marque de champagne

to make it a bit more Christmassy, hero-like.

I can't eat it, because I'm allergic to strawberries,

but that is outstanding.

-Do you want to pick it off...?

-Not really, not really, thank you.

I expect more to be like that.

That's really crucial.

Pitching to him is desserts buyer Gemma.

Her previous hits include the Baileys quick-defrosting gateaux

and the £1 choc ice Majestics.

Oh, my God.

This is cocktail jellies.

It's a brand-new product,

which will need investment,

but they really are desperate to launch it.

-There's about 4% alcohol in there.

-Bloody hell.

-Is there? 4%?

This has got to be the step change.

We've got to stop Tesco and ASDA and Morrisons

copying what we're doing, and we've got to make it much harder for them.

All they do every year is disappear off out to Thailand,

copy what we do, and next year, we have to try even harder.

You've put the effort in this year.

You've delivered some really good stuff.

I think it's really important for me that we land it

and at the right margins.

So stage one over. Stage two, go make it work.

Well done, guys, thank you very much indeed. Good job, good job.

Also pitching is Alastair.

He started his career as a shelf stacker and worked his way up.

He recently won a Frozen Food Award for his Duck Duo

and helped relaunch the King Prawn Ring.

Everyone's got a King Prawn Ring, as we know.

We owned it, and everyone else has got it.

And to be fair, what they've done this year is they've done it

in a garlic and coriander dry coating,

and then they've done it with a dip.

Now again...

But that's not expensive to do,

cos you just whack it down the line with a rub.

So they just drop the prawns in and then just put...

I thought it was a great way of actually...

-..adding value to a King Prawn Ring.

-..adding value.

And it's something suddenly very different.

Could you do your disc with three flavours on?

Yeah, that's where I was going. And maybe not... Don't do it as a ring.

Nigel's sending Alastair to Thailand to find exotic,

colourful finger food to rival Waitrose's on budget prices.

And they've also got a Mixed Wrap Platter.

-There's some good stuff in here, you know.

-Finger rolls.

-Take that with you.

-Yeah, OK.

Malcolm's company's come a long way since he opened his first shop

43 years ago in Oswestry in the Midlands.

I started Iceland with my partner

when we were both working in Woolworth's.

And the prime reason for starting the business was

because we hated Woolworth's.

Back then, he had just £30 to put into the business.

And we're coming up now to our first store.

And this shop here...

..was the first Iceland, which is now a men's and ladies' outlet.

-Hello.

-Hello.

-My name's Malcolm Walker.

-This shop, in 1970, was the first Iceland.

-Yes. Yes, I remember it!

A bit behind that wood panelling is our blue tiles.

You've got the original Marley tiles.

-Yeah, which I put down with my own hands.

-You've got the original.

You've got the original...

Customers trip up on it. Um...

Ah, they're glued down!

Can you remember loose frozen foods when we served it by the shovel full?

Our first customers, when we were selling loose frozen food,

wouldn't have a freezer,

just a fridge with that little ice compartment at the top.

And they'd buy from us for the meal ahead.

So we would buy £56 sacks of peas and tip them out into trays,

or 200 fish fingers catering packs.

So we were pioneers.

In the mid '70s, the chest freezer was launched on the market,

and the British public fell in love.

Our journey has gone from loose frozen food to bulk packs

to storing in the big chest freezer in your garage.

And it was only gradually that we expanded our product range,

started getting more and more packetted products.

Housewives were no longer housewives. They were going out to work.

They'd got less time. Ready meals came in.

It was a long journey of evolution in frozen foods.

Through four decades, Malcolm's business grew steadily.

In 1984, it was floated on the London Stock Exchange.

But in recent years,

something's been stunting the company's growth - an image problem.

If you're at a dinner party, and somebody says, "What do you do?"

And say, "Well, I'm in frozen food." "Oh, well, of course,

"we don't eat frozen food," you know. Oh, right.

So you buy your frozen prawns defrosted from Sainsbury's,

do you, at the fish counter? Of course they're not fresh!

They're defrosted!

But if your freezer breaks down at home and your prawns melt,

you think they're poisonous and throw them away.

But they might have been defrosted three days ago in the supermarket.

So which is better for you? Freezing is God's way of preserving food.

Oh, this is bizarre, isn't it? Doner kebab pizza!

I couldn't believe it when we brought that out. Sells like hell!

So people want it.

Little pieces of doner kebab. Onions, they're good for you.

Green peppers are good for you. So there you are.

It's a half-healthy product!

That pizza is made with cheese.

You go and buy a cheap pizza somewhere else

and look on the back, and it's not made with cheese.

It's made with something called analogue, which is

a synthetic cheese. Can you believe that?

Quality at Iceland.

'This is BBC Radio 4.'

'We are going to be very careful this Christmas,

'most analysts believe, and whichever supermarket it is wants

'a cut of your ever-dwindling pocket.

'So as we get into Christmas, it's going to get even more vicious.'

We're open in 10 minutes. Oh, my God!

I know. Right, let's get rid of the mop, bucket and the brushes.

We didn't have a soul in yesterday morning. Not a soul!

It's been a slow start to Christmas.

Even the cleaners are trying to stay positive.

I enjoy coming to work.

It's just everything that goes with it, you know.

You know, other companies you work for, they're just so sort of,

like, staged in what they do,

but Iceland seem to have a different approach, I think.

The whole atmosphere in the shop, you know, is just friendly.

I bore everyone at home, though, cos I like it so much!

Me daughter used to say, "Mum, you're obsessed with Iceland!"

I can't breathe through this blooming nose!

-I'm just so hot.

-I know.

The company needs to punch above its weight this Christmas.

It's a top-up shop.

Most customers do the bulk of their shopping at other supermarkets.

Can I swipe your Bonus Card? Can I swipe your Bonus Card?

Malcolm believes that if staff can persuade customers to buy

just one more product here and one less in Tesco, sales can recover.

Hello.

He's hoping his cash prize staff competition

will give his company the edge.

We are one floor up.

So if I said to you, "Will you jump out that window?" You'd say, "No."

If I said, "I'll give you £500 to jump out that window."

You'd say, "No."

If I said, "I'll give you £1 million to jump out the window,"

you would, because the worst that would happen is you'd break your leg.

So that proves that an incentive works.

Hello, love. You all right?

-Have you got your vodka for your Coke?

-Yeah, we have.

That's all right, then!

In Ewood, Craig has put Jeanette

and Jackie to work to get customer service WOWs from the public.

All your presents all wrapped and everything?

All you have to do is go online, love.

Customer service questions and what you think of the Christmas decor.

Iceland's giving away £1,000 a day.

It's just a bit of feedback for the store.

If customers go online to vote, they too

stand to win a cash prize.

Now, you're going to win £1,000, all right? I'm positive!

The WOWs are great for us, cos it gives us

real-time feedback on service, so Jeanette was "polite and friendly.

"She smiled a lot and put my shopping through efficiently."

There it is - 15, 16, 17...

17 WOWs come down from yesterday, so that's fantastic.

Now, when you go to your grandson's, get pampered.

They are hard to get. You've got to really, really drive them in-store.

Well, what you're going to have to do is drop a few hints and, like,

leave a couple pairs of Marigolds about so that, you know, they do

the washing up and things like that.

'Going off from what customers say to us, we're a lot more friendlier.'

The Aldi staff have to scan 1,000 items per hour.

Hence why they don't look up and chat to everybody.

I can say 1,000 words an hour very easily.

I don't know about scanning 1,000 items!

Bangkok, Thailand.

Senior buyer Alastair's arrived in the home of exotic finger food.

On a previous trip, the company discovered its bestselling

frozen Prawn Ring with dipping sauce.

Now Alastair's looking for another winner.

The Tikka Somosa was the bestselling new line in the range.

His Thai-based suppliers cook up food samples to pitch to him.

If I don't eat everything, please don't take offence.

THEY LAUGH

He'll have to consume 1.5 kg of food in his quest to find the Holy Grail.

-So what is it?

-This is a Strawberry Thai.

-Yes.

And what's the filling? What's the filling?

-No cream.

-Not cream?

Iceland manufactures most of its party fare range here in Thailand.

They're renowned for making hand-finished food that's hard

for the competition to copy.

Over here, they're very nimble-fingered,

they're very good at that intricacy that you need.

So everyone is exactly the same,

because the expectation of the end consumer is that

whenever they pick up that pack of veg spring rolls,

they're going to get the same product.

The company keeps prices down by making the products in bulk, then

freezing them in large quantities and shipping them to the UK.

The mini Chicken and Salmon Wellingtons,

still need to see those in the two different shapes.

Alastair needs more ideas to protect their party food range

from the challenge of the supermarket giants. His idea?

Britain's best-loved dishes in a bite-sized chunk.

Um...Chicken Casserole and Dumpling.

So we said layer of casserole then layer of mash. Sausage and Mash Bite.

I really like the idea of this All-day Breakfast Bite.

So if I was having an all-day breakfast,

you almost want a hash brown base.

Hash brown, egg, bacon...

Yeah. Or egg and sausage.

Egg and sausage, same as McDonald's do it.

Or tomato and mushroom.

But the Thai chefs are struggling to deliver to British tastes.

The Roast Chicken Dinner.

The first thing, definitely,

that we're going to need to address is the visual.

Needs to at least show the ingredients

that make up that well-known product.

You see, if it wasn't for the awful texture of the batter,

that would eat really, really well. I mean, look at that.

You've got the great visual there...

and then we're hiding it. It needs some colour, though.

I think what it is is we're frying it all.

We're putting a batter over it,

so we're just covering all the things we don't want to cover.

I need to mention this to Nigel.

PHONE RINGS

Mr Crimp? How you doing?

'Mr Broadhurst.'

How's it going, Al?

'We're struggling to get a product that's going to hold.'

We're reverting back to type,

ie, we're reverting back to enclosing things and making things beige again.

You've got to put pressure on these guys this year,

'cos we've really got to make sure we're somewhere between M&S

'and Waitrose in terms of selection.'

Did you waft around a Waitrose brochure to everybody

and get the idea of what we were looking at?

Yeah, yeah. No, the Waitrose brochure has had many a viewing.

All right. So you're going back out for the next session now, are you?

'Yeah.'

OK. Cheers, Nigel.

Look at those, Shashada.

Your eye's just hit with colour, isn't it?

That's what we want to try and deliver, isn't it?

Some unusual prawn products have caught Alastair's eye -

-Prawns in Blankets.

-But they look great.

The colour of the prawn really contrasts well with the bacon,

and it's shamelessly copying M&S as well, to be fair.

I'd say that's the better product than the M&S product.

And a product M&S don't have -

prawns in a rice crispy-style batter.

We've definitely got that prawn shape. They look really good. Yeah.

The bubbles is a good visual.

I'm tasting prawn. You feel it in your mouth. Thank you, Boo.

Give me a hug. Thank you.

In one month's time,

he'll have to get his new ideas past Nigel...at the right price.

'If a category is under-performing

'or if a buyer is not hitting his numbers,'

you know, we have conversations

and we all work hard to help that buyer to get to the number

that they need to get to,

because when you add all the buyers' numbers up,

that's the number I need.

Back in the UK, competing against Alastair for slots

in the revamped party range is desserts buyer Gemma.

She's not giving up on her alcoholic jelly cocktails.

I've had three previous meetings with the supplier who we're working

on the jelly party shots with.

The company needs to stay ahead on cost.

Suppliers know they'll get short shrift if the price isn't right.

I guess that's part of why we're here, to always challenge

and to make sure we're getting the right product

at the right price with good value for money.

And it's got to deliver, at the end of the day.

It won't get through to sign-off if it doesn't deliver on those metrics.

So we shall see what they bring today.

The shots divided the camps at the last panel.

Half the room loved them. Half the room hated them.

I think they're a bit of a novelty Marmite-style product.

That said, I still...

I'm quite passionate about it and I think it's got great mileage,

because it offers something unique that hasn't been done before.

So, tasting alcohol shots at 11 o'clock on a Monday morning!

Has that definitely got alcohol in it?

Ah! If I'm going to be really critical, I'll say it's a bit soapy.

-What is your position?

-Er... the cost of £1.50 per unit...

But these raw materials, they're very basic.

You know, 40% water,

so I will immediately be challenged on that cost price.

I've given you a target cost of where, ballpark, it needs to be.

Yup.

I mean, obviously, we've had a few conversations about that pricing

so far.

I do think that that is actually as far as we're going to get to.

I know for a fact I won't be able to sign it off as £1.50.

That is my feedback. So we're not far off. There's work to be done.

It's 40% water in there, so I would challenge you that, you know,

a lot of it is from a tap.

Um...

-OK.

-I'm a believer in the product.

-You need to somehow work your magic and get the cost revised.

-OK.

-We'll speak again, then, once I've had a chance to catch up.

-Good.

-OK. Thank you very much.

-Thanks, Gemma.

-Bye.

-'This is BBC Radio 4.'

-'Hello. Good afternoon.

'The latest figures show what they call a dead heat

'in the battle for Christmas between Tesco and Sainsbury's.

'There were positive performances too for Iceland.

'What does that tell us about the way we're shopping for food

'and other essentials?'

With just a few days until Christmas,

the shopfloor staff are working their magic.

The competition between rival branches to win

customer service WOWs is entering the final push.

Will you do me a favour? If you get a chance, will you give me a WOW?

At Cheetham Hill, Nat and Helen are working the WOWs at the till.

Put in your name and address

-and you've got a chance of winning £1,000 a day.

-Not a problem.

We're really pushing the WOWs.

I've been stood down near the till, making sure they're all asking...

all our cashiers are asking everybody.

All eyes are on the big prize.

This is Malcolm, who owns Iceland, Malcolm Walker.

He's the one that's going to present us with the 10 grand

when we win it, when he comes here to the store.

If you get a chance, while you're with the internet,

do you fancy giving me a WOW?

You must remember me when you win, OK?

You don't have the internet? No?

Oh, God! Thanks.

We're definitely the underdogs.

Just cos we're from a bit of a crappy area, it doesn't

necessarily mean that we're not as good as Ewood and places up that end.

Well, all the best. Have a lovely time. Cheers, love. See you now.

There you are, love. £74, please.

In Ewood, Lancashire, it's the last charm offensive for Jeanette

and Jackie before they close for Christmas

and the WOWs are totted up at head office.

Did you know the original costume for Santa was green?

It's Coca-Cola that changed it to red. Ah, see!

I'm full of trivia like this! Do me a cup of tea?

# Jingle bell, jingle bell Jingle bell rock... #

The Christmas incentive is over.

All the stores can do is wait and see who's won.

# Snowing and blowing up bushels of fun... #

We're done! Yes! We're done!

# Jingle bell... #

-A robot. I'm a robot!

-Yeah. Hectic.

Yeah. Have you got a Bonus Card, please?

Merry Christmas, blahdy, blahdy. Are you well? See you. All the best.

-Next! Yeah. That's what it's been like.

-A bit hectic, yes.

I'm sick of the site of turkeys and Baileys Gateaux.

-That's all everybody's bought today.

-Lots of selection boxes.

-And Bucks Fizz. Bucks Fizz as well to go with bacon butties.

-Yeah.

-Yes.

-So, yeah.

-We've done well.

We've done well. We've earnt our crust, anyway.

Yeah, and I hope to God I don't see any more food now. I'm fed up of it.

# Shoppers smile at the welcome

# Friendly staff here to help them... #

It's the head office Christmas party at Chester Racecourse.

# Christmas in an Iceland wonderland... #

HQ is left in the hands of father and son security guard team

Tony and John - both black belts in karate.

It's cost the company more than three and a half million pounds

in electricity bills to keep its 55,000 freezers cold

over its all important eight-week Christmas period.

This is the garage.

A Bentley with "Ice".

It's the company's... Well, Malcolm's, I take it.

# Iceland wonderland

# Working in an Iceland wonderland

# Iceland wonderland

# Working in an Iceland wonderland

# Welcome to an Iceland wonderland! #

APPLAUSE

Malcolm's been away on a charity expedition.

He's pre-recorded a message with an important

announcement about the Christmas sales results.

OK, well, good morning, everybody. I do like to present...

Sometimes I'm Father Christmas,

but this actually isn't my Father Christmas outfit.

This is the kit I shall be wearing next week,

when I ski to the South Pole.

Yeah, what an amazing year it's been.

Starting off winning that fantastic award -

the Best Company in Britain to Work For.

Best Leader, as well. Well, of course.

It maybe took our eye off the ball a little bit,

cos sales just slipped a little in the first six months

of this year, but we seem to have got over that now.

I've just came out of the sales meeting, and sales seem to be

flying, once again, so hopefully they still will be by the time I get back.

So, everything's going swimmingly well.

Sales are up 5%. The company's had its best Christmas in three years.

74% of customers were saying stores were festive,

versus only 34% previously. Most of them liked it.

Customers particularly liked the decorations around the till poles,

from the research on that, and it was a big jump.

Well done, good.

With business looking up, it's time to reward the staff.

Malcolm will be surprising six stores up and down the country

with a briefcase of £10,000 in cash.

He'll be travelling from west to east, south to north,

in a 1,000 mile round trip to cover all of his empire.

Oh, bloody hell! It's real. I thought they were going to be...

-No, it's real.

-Bloody hell. I thought they were blank paper.

Look after it!

First stop, South Wales.

Port Talbot.

CHEERING

The Port Talbot team will share the money,

taking home between £200 and £700 each.

Bit of a low-key reception, wasn't it(?)

For Cheetham Hill, no news.

Everybody's feeling positive,

and they're all in, in case we do win, cos they want to see

the briefcase of money, so we just have to wait and see.

I want to roll on the floor in it.

I want to put the money on the floor and roll.

-Is it real money that he brings in?

-Yeah.

Imagine it in Cheetham Hill?

They'll have gangs waiting outside, sat there going,

"Come on, Malcolm, bring the money."

But in rival store Ewood,

a phone call for store manager Craig.

Morning, Graham.

(ON PHONE) 'Morning.'

Listen, thanks for today. I know it's been busy and stuff.

I've got some disappointing news.

-Unfortunately, we didn't make it in.

-Aw.

Aw!

-OK?

-All right. Never mind.

Thank you, anyway, cos I know you've all come out of hours,

and it was a great effort by everybody.

-We had a really good crack at it, didn't we?

-We enjoyed it.

It's brightened the store up and the customers, hasn't it?

I wouldn't say I was hurt, no, but at the end of the day,

we always do our best.

And I think if you had to ask our customers, they like our best.

We enjoyed doing it, we enjoyed the atmosphere,

the customers enjoyed it, loved the store... That's all that counts.

Not winning.

I'm going to have a couple of minutes on my own, guys, if you don't mind.

At head office, desserts buyer Gemma is also waiting for news.

It's time for Nigel to decide whether her alcoholic jelly shots

will be in the new party range.

So, the counts were divided on this one.

You've got a few reservations about jelly shots.

We've got tequila sunrise, pina colada, and champagne and strawberry.

It's all natural, all fruit juice, dig in.

-I just don't know about these, Gem.

-No?

-No...

Can we... Can you... Can you take it like a shot? Does it work?

No, you have to spoon it.

-THEY LAUGH

-Spoon.

-Yeah.

Gem, that is violently sweet.

Sorry, really not for me.

It's like a glob of gum.

Shall we put it on the sub's bench for now or...?

No, I think there's a general sort of shake of the heads around the place.

-OK.

-Look, I get where you were coming, don't get too upset about it.

He's got a really good instinct for good sellers, bad sellers...

He can spot a dog a mile off.

Now it's Alistair's turn.

After four weeks of tweaking,

the samples of his Thai products are ready.

Definitely got pre-match nerves this year.

If sometimes you have a product that just

goes down like a sack of shit, Nigel will remember that, so, yeah...

I'm definitely pre-match nerves.

First up, Alistair's prawn products.

OK, a product that M&S had, which we quite liked the idea of,

was Prawns in Blankets.

I'm not sure if that's pushing it one notch too far, for me...

-What, Prawns in Blankets?

-Wrapping prawns in bacon.

Do you know what, I've probably been put off by how bad that looks,

if I'm really honest.

I mean, cutting up a few tomatoes and making it look nice on the side

of the plate doesn't compensate for looking that rubbish, does it?

-Um, back to the drawing board.

-Yeah, fair enough.

I like them.

Nigel has spotted Alistair's rice crispy style prawns.

Can we get to a point where we've got that visual on a product,

-that's a prawn product, at a pound.

-I like that a lot.

I think that's a really good product, I like the concept.

I think the product's great, I love the texture. Amazing.

That delivers really well. It tastes really good.

You look at that and you go, "Do you know what?

"I know that will sell. I know I can make that work."

Do you know what? Launch it. Get on with it. Just get it launched.

So, you know, big high-five all round, really.

Just get it launched.

There's a shiny car. Look! There's a shiny car! Look, yeah.

It's gone the wrong way, but there's a shiny car.

It's the afternoon. Still no sign of Malcolm at Cheetham Hill.

You can tell the traffics bad coming out of town,

cos there's a lot of finger. A lot of it.

If Malcolm doesn't show up by closing time,

the money's not coming.

It's ten to two now, so we're a bit anxious now.

Why couldn't you land in car park?! THEY LAUGH

There's a big one over there.

You're the winners!

CHEERING

I'm going to shop here more often!

-Guys, well done. Congratulations. See you soon.

-Oh, yeah. The money!

Unfortunately, they don't actually get the cash.

It goes in their wage packet, subject to tax.

Right, you've got to finish that champagne off now, ladies.

I just seen a helicopter go over.

With five stores around the country awarded £10,000,

it's the sixth and final stop for Malcolm - the north of England.

There are still three stores in the running...

Scunthorpe...

Malcolm, Nick and Richard are now on their way to the winner.

So, not long!

..Skegness...

Still nothing.

Looking out for a very posh car with Malcolm and a briefcase.

You don't get many big, posh cars in Skegness.

..and Cheetham Hill...

Only one will win.

They're keeping us in suspense. That's what they're doing.

Definitely.

Here we are. Where's the lot?

CHEERING

The winner - Cheetham Hill.

Well done, Nat, congratulations.

Amazing.

Congratulations.

Is that them won it?

Ten grand!

Now I can decorate my daughter's bedroom, can't I?

You've got to have some integrity about running your business.

I think you've got to treat people as you want to be treated.

I can remember working for Woolworth's -

the only job I've ever had.

It was horrible. I hated it.

To treat people the way you'd like to be treated yourself

is ethically the right thing to do.

Now, not only is it the right thing to do, but it puts cash in the till.

To lift morale, to have enthusiastic and well-motivated staff,

to have staff that actually enjoy coming to work as best they can...

Maybe, at the end of the day, nobody likes going to work...

I do, but maybe a lot of people don't.

You've just got to make it as bearable

or as pleasurable as possible.

Make sure you get some champagne. Paul's got the champagne behind you.

Grab a glass.

-I can't stop smiling!

-You just can't let go of that money!

Over the moon.

It's amazing. It really is.

And we deserved it.

I can actually say that I've met a millionaire now,

and he was a very nice man, actually.

He gave me a kiss on the cheek and everything. It was great.

My own personal sugar daddy. Only not.

Despite the buoyant Christmas results,

an unexpected announcement is about the change the new year for Malcolm.

REPORTER: A leading meat supplies has recalled ten million

beef burgers from supermarkets in the UK and Ireland, as an investigation

begins into the origin of horse meat found in some products.

In Tooting, assistant store manager Chris has received a package.

It's been sent to all stores from head office with bad news.

The Food Safety Authority of Ireland has discovered traces

of horse DNA in an Iceland burger.

"Food Safety Authority of Ireland yesterday issued

"a report on frozen burgers, which stated that traces of horse

"and pig DNA had apparently been found in two batches

"of Iceland quarter-pounder burgers."

They'll receive a full refund and an apology.

Me and boyfriend was like, "No! Horse meat!" We love horses,

they were in the Olympics and stuff.

You just think, how can you put horse in a burger?

Really upset me. I love animals. All kinds of animals.

Like, how the world is now... Like, how they're, just...

There's hardly any gorillas left, tigers,

and now they're just eating horse.

Could have been going on weeks and months, maybe last year,

maybe two years.

But nobody had picked it up.

Does it make you nervous that you might have eaten burgers

-with horse in them?

-Might have been, yeah.

I just wake up in the morning and hope

I haven't got a horse's tail, that's what I worry about!

Monday morning, and Malcolm's back at head office.

All the newspapers are running with the horse meat story.

Even in the Telegraph. Less of a scandal there, though.

"Shergar and Fries." HE LAUGHS

Horse meat found in Tesco burgers. I mean, we're delighted, of course.

You know, it's like an advert that we've paid for, isn't it?

Then the bad news is that we got a mention as well.

The percentage was 0.1.

In other words, it's contamination. It blows over.

I mean, this is last week's news.

This week's different. It's about the snow.

The trouble for Malcolm is that his company's name is now

indelibly linked to the scandal.

Responsibility for finding out how horse DNA was found

in their beef burgers has fallen to technical manager Trish.

It was a very big shock for me,

because horse is not included as an ingredient in any of our burgers.

I took a call from the supplier who said that the tests results

illustrated that it was an ingredient supplier of theirs from

a Dutch firm, which has been proven to be the source of the equine DNA.

Now, I'm not saying we used horse,

but I am saying we used that supplier, OK?

It's important to bear that in mind. There's a difference.

The next results I'll be getting...will be telling...

I've got no idea, I can't remember. I'm very sorry.

Was I allowed to do that? Can you cut? Sorry.

-I don't know what I'm getting.

-What did you do?

I just completely lost it. And I as doing well.

-You were doing really well.

-Very well.

-Thanks.

Um, OK.

Our world has now slightly shifted.

We had never considered horse before.

But what else do we now need to consider?

Should we be thinking about different species?

You're obviously badly blindsided if your company has got

something in the product that you didn't know about.

You don't know what to do, you have to figure it out

and make decisions really quickly. On the hoof? Can I say that?

Is it a bit corny? But it is true.

-Hi.

-Hello.

-You've come to see the horse?

-Please. Do you have it?

PR consultant Keith has found a home video shot in Tesco

that's gone viral.

According to Google, there's more than one of these.

There's one in Tesco in Loughborough, as well.

SHOUTING AND LAUGHTER

It could have been us, Keith.

-There but for the grace of God.

-Absolutely.

Before this became mainstay of jokes throughout the country,

one of our customers posted on the Iceland Facebook page,

"Thank you, Iceland, for making our family's dream come true.

"We told our daughter we couldn't afford to buy her a pony."

That was within a few hours of the thing breaking.

By and large, it has been...

sort of humour rather than anything else.

So, the reaction has been less negative than we were hoping?

-Than we were fearing.

-Fearing, absolutely.

How significant can this kind of scandal be?

Potentially, very significant indeed,

in terms of loss of customer trust.

Hello.

All the work at Christmas to repair sales is now under threat.

Hello, can you hear me?

'It's a nightmare. It's only a nightmare because sales are down.'

You know, we employ 25,000 people. There's jobs at stake here.

We've got to fight back. And it's knowing how to.

Next time, the horse meat crisis deepens...

Trish is called to the House of Commons to defend the company...

-I've not seen Iceland's apology.

-I'm sorry this has happened.

Of course I am.

Armed with clear test results, Malcolm goes on a media rampage.

Personally, I wouldn't eat value supermarket products,

because they won't contain much meat. There'll be other things in there.

Will his plain speaking be the answer to his problems

or a recipe for disaster?

Here we are in the PR nerve centre of Iceland,

at the end of 96 hours of total hell.

Would you like to find out more?

Join the Open University in exploring the changing face

of the high street and discover what's in store for the future.

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Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd