Britvic, Müller and Happy Egg are among the big-name suppliers working with Iceland Foods to launch exclusive products through the supermarket’s accelerator scheme Brands on Ice.
Earlier this month, the grocer held the first of what will be quarterly pitching days for the new programme, which launched in May as a way for brands to bring new products to the UK market.
It’s now working with 12 suppliers to develop the initial wave of products, which will be stocked exclusively in Iceland or Food Warehouse stores. The first will begin rolling into stores in August. Others will launch in the early part of next year.
The slew of NPD is from a mixture of international brands – who will make their UK market debut through Iceland – as well as established and challenger brands, such as Austrian ice cream company Frozen Power, which specialises in “bespoke ice cream bars”.
Existing supplier Italpizza is working to launch a new line of stuffed crust products into Iceland. The NPD is the company’s first attempt to launch a stuffed crust product.
Innovation agency Juicy Brick also pitched a wave of products. Some of these will be integrated into some of Iceland’s existing tertiary brands, to create new products within existing ranges.
“It shows the levels we’re getting,” said Oliver Gilding, Iceland Foods head of innovation and licensing.
“We’re not just going after big brands or small brands, but people who can create innovation that will excite our customers.
“We saw a whole host of really exciting true innovation, some in exciting new categories of products as well.”
Brands on Ice is Iceland’s first incubator scheme. It was launched as an extension of Iceland’s successful tertiary brands programme, as a way of helping suppliers or emerging brands bring new products to the UK market.
As well as pitching product ideas to a panel of Iceland buyers and executives, brands also pitched potential plans for activations, packaging and marketing strategies once a product was live.
Iceland buyers and product development teams then work with companies to create the products, which are launched into Iceland and Food Warehouse stores on an exclusive basis.
Iceland had been “pleasantly surprised” with the initial response from brands, Gilding said.
The supermarket received over 100 applications during the first wave of the scheme. It extended the pitching process by an additional day so that more brands could pitch.
“The beauty of branded innovation is a lot of it is ready to go. It’s more about aligning on the plan to support it. Usually, we can move quite quickly from that,” Gilding said.
“Usually within own label it takes us a lot longer to develop the products because they are not there.”
Iceland is currently accepting applications for the next pitching session, which is scheduled for November.
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