Big Food Group has started sourcing groceries from Nisa to boost Iceland’s home shopping offer.
The Nisa lines form part of an enhanced online shopping range sourced from selected Booker depots. Iceland has been able to more than double the range available to online customers, sourcing from Booker depots in Sunbury, Chester and Kingswinsford.
Although Booker has a strong ambient grocery offer, it approached Nisa because it offered a wider range of pack sizes for certain products, such as toilet rolls, said a spokesman.
Despite the enhanced range, however, analysts claim orders at Sunbury are currently just short of 800 a week with an average value of £66, well below the 1,500 orders and £72 average basket a week needed for the operation to break even.
Baird analyst Paul Smiddy said extending any scheme using Booker depots as online picking centres for Iceland was “unlikely to be helpful to BFG’s operating profits in the near term”, despite the apparent logic of using the group’s shared infrastructure in this way.
Losses from Iceland’s home shopping operation have increased from about £1m in 1999/2000 to more than £4m a year, said Smiddy. He suggested this reflected increased competition.
The Nisa lines form part of an enhanced online shopping range sourced from selected Booker depots. Iceland has been able to more than double the range available to online customers, sourcing from Booker depots in Sunbury, Chester and Kingswinsford.
Although Booker has a strong ambient grocery offer, it approached Nisa because it offered a wider range of pack sizes for certain products, such as toilet rolls, said a spokesman.
Despite the enhanced range, however, analysts claim orders at Sunbury are currently just short of 800 a week with an average value of £66, well below the 1,500 orders and £72 average basket a week needed for the operation to break even.
Baird analyst Paul Smiddy said extending any scheme using Booker depots as online picking centres for Iceland was “unlikely to be helpful to BFG’s operating profits in the near term”, despite the apparent logic of using the group’s shared infrastructure in this way.
Losses from Iceland’s home shopping operation have increased from about £1m in 1999/2000 to more than £4m a year, said Smiddy. He suggested this reflected increased competition.
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