The British supermarket chain Iceland is closing in the Czech Republic. The company ICL Czech, which until recently operated a total of 11 stores in the Czech Republic, filed for insolvency on Sunday, May 8.
ICL Czech has outstanding debts with 135 creditors, to whom it owes a total of approximately CZK 38.4 million, the insolvency petition said. The company owes debts to the Czech Social Security Administration, the Financial Officer of the City of Prague, and ČSOB.
According to the reasoning in the insolvency petition, two things broke Iceland’s neck: the pandemic and Brexit.
“The petitioner’s bankruptcy is due to the negative state of the economy as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has also affected the food retail sector. The company’s results of operations were also significantly adversely affected by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland’s withdrawal from the European Union (Brexit), which resulted in a significant increase in the cost of transporting goods and other costs of services related to the clearance of goods, with a consequent necessary increase in the price of the range of foodstuffs so imported,” the company said in its insolvency petition.
Iceland specializes in selling frozen goods from the UK. News reported last month that it had closed its e-shop and quietly shut down some of its 11 branches in the Czech Republic.
According to the insolvency petition, the company has 82 employees in the Czech Republic, with another 19 on non-employment agreements.