Store of the week: Iceland Dragonville Retail Park, Durham

Congratulations! Are you expecting Malcolm Walker to arrive in a helicopter with a briefcase full of cash? I would like him to! But no, I wouldn’t be expecting that. Malcolm is a good boss. He is honest in terms of where we are at, he sends out a lot of information about what the plan of action is.

Do you like the new TV ads featuring Peter Andre? I like the emphasis on 89p. We’ve been at that price point for a while but I don’t think people knew we were doing it, because our marketing wasn’t that strong. We still had people coming in and giving us £1 and walking off without waiting for their change.

Does top marks for service back up Iceland’s claim it has a happy workforce? The market is very competitive, and there is a real importance in being better than your rivals. We have tried to stick with having service right at the forefront.

Speaking of rivals, Aldi is next door. How do you find that? I think they probably help us. If you look across Iceland stores we are the only ones with footfall up. We tend to be shopped off the back of Aldi’s success.

There is a Tesco next door as well. Who do you fear more? Aldi, because of how competitive they are. And Tesco is probably slightly too expensive for the area we are in.

The Iceland Warehouse concept has opened. Will you see any of the range? I’m not sure. The idea of the Warehouse is to lower the cost-to-sell ratio, and I’m not sure how it would affect the levels of service we offer.

How have you found Iceland returning to online? We aren’t fully operational yet, but there is a lot of focus on the online operation and getting it right.

A lot of Iceland’s stores are on high streets, but you have a car park. Does it make a difference? It’s a big contributor. Our average spend is just over £16 - the highest in the area. Customers do trolley shops.