Home delivery will feature heavily in Iceland chief executive Bill Grimsey's future plans as he tries to turn around the company after a disastrous two weeks. This week the share price plunged again after a trading statement showing synergies between Iceland and Booker were £8m, not the £20m predicted. Chairman Malcolm Walker resigned after massive publicity over a £13.5m share deal, and Iceland md Andrew Pritchard resigned, leaving Grimsey as the longest serving executive director after five weeks in the post. Grimsey told the Grocer: "Home shopping is a very important part of the business and offers massive opportunities for growth. "The customer profile is different to our traditional customer, and the average spend is considerably higher. Home shopping is an encouraging green shoot for cultivation." Grimsey criticised the previous management for not managing the integration of Iceland and Booker properly, But he said that he was convinced synergies were achieveable and would produce considerable savings for the company. "I still believe in the merger, but we will start the integration again. We will appoint a director of integration and bring in consultants," he said. He added it was too early to put a figure on the synergies, but said: "If £8m was achieved from what I consider was an inadequate process, we can do a lot better." In addition to the new director to manage integration, Grimsey is also looking for a director of strategy, and managing directors for Iceland and Booker, non-executive director David Price. Grimsey said he was confident he could arrest the decline in sales reported last week with "food you can trust and pulse racing deals", But he warned it would take 18 months to turn things around. and added he would now be working on a strategic plan for the group, and he hoped to be in a position to present this to the City by June. City analysts gave Grimsey unanimous backing as the man to sort out the problems. David McCarthy of Schroder Salomon Smith Barney said: "I have tremendous respect for Grimsey and finance director Bill Hoskins. They'll sort it out." Philip Dorgan of WestLB Panmure said: "Grimsey is highly regarded, but the job is now a lot tougher." - See Ice man goeth, page 3 {{NEWS }}

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