Iceland international business director Paul Foley has resigned his two directorships at the frozen food retailer a year after taking them on.
The former Aldi UK boss took on directorships at Iceland and its export arm ITEX in January 2013 but has resigned because expansion into new territories is now low on the retailer’s agenda.
Foley, who originally began working with Iceland on a consultancy basis in April 2012, remained a consultant in the last year and was not an Iceland employee despite his directorships.
Iceland said Foley had “scaled back” his involvement but will continue to work with the retailer alongside other international consultancy work.
Foley has helped Iceland develop operations in South Africa, the Middle East, Ireland and the Czech Republic where he set up its management team.
He had previously worked for Iceland, when he was a management trainee for Bejam which was acquired by Iceland in 1989. He then became Iceland’s regional manager for the South East and helped integrate the two companies. He later ran Aldi in the UK before setting up his consultancy.
Iceland founder Malcolm Walker told Retail Week: “Paul has done what we needed him to do, he helped set up our international division and we will continue to work with him. We are not looking at any new territories at the moment.”
Iceland chief financial officer Tarsem Dhaliwal thanked Foley for his work and said: “Our focus in the near term will be on further developing our existing businesses in these four regions, and we have therefore agreed with Paul that there are limited opportunities for a consultant of his seniority to add more value. He has, accordingly, decided to seek new opportunities and we wish him all the very best for the future.”
Malcolm Walker’s son Richard Walker is chief operating officer of its international division.
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