UK: Iceland appoints Foley as international director

ICELAND APPOINTS NEW INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS DIRECTOR TO DRIVE OVERSEAS GROWTH

Iceland Foods is pleased to announce the appointment of Paul Foley to its operating board in the new role of International Business Director, with a brief to identify and exploit new opportunities to grow the Iceland brand throughout the world.

He will take responsibility for Iceland's established and flourishing ITEX export business and its new retail operation in the Czech Republic, and will be based at the ITEX office in Vienna. He will report directly to Iceland Chief Executive Malcolm Walker.

Paul Foley began his retail career in 1976 as a management trainee with Bejam, which was acquired by Iceland in 1989. He made a significant contribution to the integration of Bejam and Iceland as Iceland's Regional Manager for the South East, but left the company later in 1989 to join the start-up of Aldi in the UK as Sales Director. He became Aldi's Group Managing Director for the UK in 2000 and for the UK and Ireland in 2004. He was also a key member of Aldi's international project team responsible for researching and establishing other Aldi businesses around the world.

After playing the central role in building Aldi in the UK and Ireland into a 500-store, £2 billion turnover business, Paul left in 2009 to set up his own retail consultancy, where he has spent the last three years working in cooperation with one of the region's most successful strategic retail consultancies, CONplementation (www.conplementation.at), whose clients are some of the largest food, electronics and drugstore retailers in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, all other CIS countries, Turkey, Georgia and the Czech Republic. Paul has already begun working for Iceland but for the next few months he will also be fulfilling his remaining consultancy commitments before joining Iceland full time in January 2013.

Paul Foley said: "I am greatly looking forward to joining the dynamic team at Iceland. The strength of the business's performance in recent years is a testament to the strength of the brand, the often underrated quality of Iceland products and the quite remarkable business culture that gives Iceland such a very special feeling as a place to work."

Iceland Chairman and Chief Executive Malcolm Walker said: "I was very sorry to lose Paul in 1989. It has not been easy to persuade him to come back and work for us, and I am absolutely delighted that he has agreed to do so. His exceptional track record and skill set make him the ideal person to lead Iceland's development outside the UK, whether that be through exports, franchising, acquisitions or store openings. The global potential of the Iceland brand is huge and I am very excited by the many opportunities that Paul's appointment will help to open up."

Original source: Iceland Foods