Now Iceland sets its sights on the Falklands! Frozen food chain to become first British high street staple to open a store on islands

Iceland is set to become the first British High Street brand to open a shop in the Falklands.

The frozen food retailer unveiled its plans just days after Argentine president Javier Milei reopened the row over the ownership of the islands and vowed to ‘recover’ the territory.

Iceland, which is run by Lord Richard Walker, who is known for campaigning on retail crime, will open its shop in the capital Stanley in early December.

Walker said: ‘We are proud to be backing Britain by becoming the first UK high street retailer to open in the Falkland Islands. The Falklands are a special part of the British family and it’s always been an ambition of mine to support it.’

The opening will be an ‘important moment for the business and our international aspirations’, he said. 

Iceland has 960 shops in the UK and around 40 internationally. It holds around 2.3 per cent of the UK grocery market.

Walker added: ‘I will personally be visiting the Falklands to officially open the store and I’m looking forward to welcoming our new customers through the door.’

The shop is being launched in partnership with local retailer Keller Stores.

Iceland said it will sell its own-label frozen products plus brands including My Protein, Cathedral City and TGI Fridays.

The news comes after the Argentine president reiterated claims for sovereignty and stated that Britain is a country ‘on a path of decline’.

Milei argued there are ‘multiple crises of a migratory, demographic and economic nature that are unlikely to be resolved’.

Unlike Britain, he said that ‘Argentina’s future, however, is flourishing and will prevail’.

He has pledged to hit oil companies drilling in the territory with sanctions as well as filing criminal charges against Israeli energy firm Navitas Petroleum for operating in its waters.

In a televised address, Milei said: ‘The Falklands are Argentinian. Historically and legally. There can be no argument. They are part of the Argentine territory.

‘The islanders on their usurped territory do not have a legitimate right to self-determination and any argument on any such self-determination is invalid.’

In response, Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband wrote: ‘The Islands are British and will remain so because that is the overwhelming position of the islanders.’

Defence Secretary Wes Streeting said the UK’s commitment to the territory was ‘absolute and unshakeable’.

Walker is known for speaking out against the worrying levels of shoplifting and abusive incidents against shop workers in the UK.

He has recently proposed allowing trained security staff in shops to carry equipment such as truncheons and pepper spray.