Bargain supermarket with 900 stores to cease trading at town centre site in days
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A BARGAIN supermarket with over 900 stores will cease trading at one town centre site in days. Iceland is pulling down the shutters on one of its store in Exeter, Devon. The site, which is located at Alphington Road Retail Park, will cease trading permanently on January 4.
![[2N5D2DJ Iceland freezer food shop front on the High Street in Staines-upon-Thames town centre with shoppers, Surrey, England, UK]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/2n5d2dj-iceland-freezer-food-shop-853943317.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
Exeter's two other Iceland stores - in Sidwell Street in the city centre, and The Food Warehouse by Iceland, in Marsh Barton Road - are unaffected. It is understood that Aldi will expand into the space currently occupied by Iceland in Alphington Road, according to reports by DevonLive.
An Iceland insider told the publication: "We knew the store was closing from the first few months of this year. "The store has done really well but Aldi is expanding into the space. "So the store will be permanently closing on January 4. Staff will be moving to Sidwell Street, The Food Warehouse or other Iceland stores.".
Retailers often close under-performing stores to relocate to areas with higher demand or over failure to renew the lease on the building. The latest closure brings the total number of Iceland stores that have shut since last year to 25. But it's not all doom and gloom as the frozen foods specialist has set its sights on opening 250 new food warehouses.
The supermarket chain is looking to expand across the UK, specifically in Brighton, Crawley, Dundee and Salisbury. Iceland is ramping up its expansion plans in the suburban areas of Glasgow, London, Manchester and Newcastle. The supermarket chain first launched its Food Warehouse stores, which are three times the size of a traditional Iceland shop, in 2014 as an experiment.
