Richard Walker, executive chairman of frozen food supermarket chain Iceland, has urged Chancellor John Healey to stop treating British business as "an endless piggy bank" ahead of next month's Budget, warning that retailers are operating on razor-thin margins and are already "maxed out" on tax and regulation.
"There needs to be an awareness that business and in particular UK retail is not an endless piggy bank that can be raided or a sponge that can be squeezed," Walker said. "We operate on razor thin margins. We are maxed out now in terms of regulation and the tax we are paying."
The interview took place at Iceland's offices, where it was briefly interrupted when Walker's father, 80-year-old Sir Malcolm Walker, the company's founder, opened the door before retreating. Richard Walker is now executive chairman of the business his parents built.
Warning over the Budget
Walker said he holds out no hope that Healey will reverse the increases in National Insurance pushed through by his predecessor, Rachel Reeves, but said "a big benefit right now would just be to have no more nasty surprises."
He said Iceland paid £175 million in tax last year and billions of pounds over the past 20 years. "I am a proud British taxpayer. Our family is among the biggest taxpayers in the UK," he said. "But the country cannot tax its way to growth."
Walker said the last Budget "was a really tough pill for business to swallow," costing Iceland about £40 million in extra employment costs from the rise in National Insurance and the national minimum wage, plus around £10 million in increased packaging costs. "The cost-of-living crisis is a symptom of the underlying problem, which is lack of growth," he said.
Price caps and a wealth tax
Walker also pushed back on suggestions from Healey that supermarkets have engaged in "price-gouging," calling it "the old chestnut about supermarkets." He said he did not know how much of the criticism was posturing, given how competitive the grocery industry is.
He warned that price caps on a market operating so efficiently would have "terrible unintended consequences," including rationing and damage to farmers and the supply chain. Asked about a wealth tax, another idea reportedly considered by the Labour government, Walker said: "It is not a grown-up serious idea."
Sir Malcolm Walker switched his political allegiance from the Conservatives to Labour in 2024. He was given a peerage by Sir Keir Starmer at the start of this year and appointed as the government's "cost-of-living tsar" shortly afterwards, but held the post for only a few months before stepping aside when Andy Burnham entered Number 10.
From one shop in Shropshire
Iceland was founded in 1970 by Sir Malcolm Walker and his wife, Rhianydd, starting with a single shop in Oswestry, Shropshire, with start-up capital of just £30. Sir Malcolm had wanted to call the business Penguin, but his wife made him call it Iceland instead.
A supermarket devoted entirely to frozen food was a startling idea at the time, as freezer ownership shifted from a preserve of wealthy households to something affordable for many British families, helping turn Sir Malcolm into a retail legend.
Iceland floated on the stock market in 1984 and was initially a big success, but ran into turbulent times in the early 2000s. Sir Malcolm resigned in 2001 after a share dealing controversy, over which he was later exonerated, before leading a comeback with chief executive Tarsem Dhaliwal that returned the business to full family control. Richard Walker said he would never consider taking Iceland public again. "When it was a public company it didn't go too well. Dad doesn't like being told what to do or say. And I guess I don't either."
Helping cash-strapped customers
Richard Walker highlighted schemes to support hard-up shoppers, including interest-free micro loans that have helped more than 40,000 families with the cost of food shopping. Iceland also offers a 10 per cent discount for customers over 60, and Walker said 3,700 customers aged over 66 have identified more than £15 million in benefits they were entitled to but had not claimed.
"We have recently introduced more than 750 lines at £1 or less," he said, citing sauces, tins, ready meals, pizzas and green vegetables.
Global growth
The group now includes around 1,000 Iceland and Food Warehouse stores, as well as the Piccolino restaurant chain, Forbici pizza outlets and a London pub called The City Scribbler. Walker said Iceland is the biggest frozen food brand in the world, operating in more than 75 countries, with the UK's biggest ready meal manufacturing facility in Oldham, where 650 jobs were recently created, producing over 100 million ready meals a year.
Turnover reached £4.1 billion in the latest accounts, for the year to the end of March 2025, with 30,000 employees. A new AI-driven "Iceland Lab" opened last year in Beijing, featuring a showroom, dining venue and hub for live-streamed e-commerce sales. Walker said it took more in its first two days than Iceland's highest-taking UK store takes in a week.
Family legacy
Before joining the family business in 2012, Richard Walker co-founded commercial property company Bywater, where he remains chairman. Of his father, he said: "Those are impossible shoes to fill. It was mum as well as dad. She was there all the way, but she doesn't get the credit. I can add to the legacy mum and dad created but I have to do it in my own way."
Sir Malcolm is still often seen at the office. "He comes here, throws a brick in the pond, has lunch and disappears," Richard said. "He has no formal responsibility, but he loves to interfere." Richard said not wanting to be branded a "nepo-baby" has driven him to work harder.
His mother's death in 2021 from Alzheimer's, a decade after her diagnosis at age 64, had a profound effect on the family and motivated him to join the family firm. "That is what has driven me here, it has driven me to the House of Lords, it has driven me to the summit of Everest," he said, referring to a climb he made with his father shortly after her diagnosis to raise money to fight the disease. "And it will continue to drive me."
