Frozen food specialist Iceland has partnered with charity-owned lender ‘Fair for You’ to offer an interest-free loans scheme to help people through the cost of living crisis.
Customers who join the Iceland Food Club can benefit from micro-loans that are made available on a pre-loaded card, with repayments set at £10 per week.
During a pilot phase of the scheme, customers paid interest on loans. However, Iceland has now decided to make all loans interest-free for the national roll-out.
The scheme is part of Iceland’s wider ‘Doing it right; right now’ strategy that is designed to support the communities it serves.
Richard Walker, Managing Director of Iceland Foods, commented: “More than ever, people are struggling to purchase much-needed everyday items during this relentless cost of living crisis, and fresh thinking is required by business and government to find workable solutions. At Iceland, as part of our Doing it right: right now we’re constantly exploring new ways to help our customers with innovative solutions that deliver real impact.”
He added: “With Fair for You, we have rolled out Iceland Food Club to offer our customers even more support, helping them manage essential spending on their own terms. To those striving to worry less about how they will afford essential goods, this ethical credit scheme delivers real help when most needed, and I believe it will make a valuable contribution to breaking the cycle of food poverty in this country.”
NAM Implications:
- This is a retailer, folks!
- (with just a 2.3% share of UK Grocery)
- Can be kept to manageable levels…pointer for others.
- Especially if default levels.
