Ethics in the freezer compartment
(posted 5-2-01)

The resignation of Malcolm Walker, founder and Chairman of UK frozen food retailer Iceland, leaves us cold.

Under normal circumstances the management politics of a minor national supermarket chain would not merit comment. But from this unlikely little company, Walker made himself an ethical and environmental luminary, dishing out sermons to the big players on food additives, climate-friendly refrigeration, egg colouring, genetic modification and most recently, organic food.

A gruff Northerner with a vision, he was up there with Ben and Jerry, Anita Roddick, Ray Anderson and Bill Ford (with whom he shared the platform at the Greenpeace Business conference in London in 2000). His message was: ethics makes profits.

So why did he resign ? For the benefit of those outside the UK: in December Walker sold most of his shares in Iceland for £13.5 million. Just weeks later the company issued a severe profits warning wiping 40% of its share value. The sale was strictly legal but the question remains: how ethical were those profits?