Sir Malcolm Walker

Why do you think Iceland is still around more than fifty years after you created it?

But we understand the business. You know, most supermarkets, you can't tell me who the boss is 'cause they change every three or four years. But because I've been there fifty odd years, I do understand the business. And I think we're very good at motivating people, motivating our staff. So fifty two years later, we've still got burning enthusiasm.

What actually happened to your father when he had the accident at the pit?

What actually happened? He had an accident at the pit. A coal cutter crushed his foot, so he couldn't work at the pit anymore. But um we always had what you call a small holding, chickens and pigs and a few animals. And How big was it? It was only eight and a half acres. But Dad then went full time on the farm and was a pioneer, I hate to say it now, in battery hens. He built a huge shed with hundreds of battery hens, and we went into egg production.

What do you think they missed in you when Littlewoods, Marks and Spencer, Lewis's and Leeds all turned you down?

You had to have an arithmetic test and I couldn't. And Marks and Spencer's, the guy was really good. He invited me in for an interview at the local store. He spent an hour talking to me about life, but said, you know, you need a university degree. I then went to Woolworths, which is bottom of the list. And the reason I went there was they took anybody. It didn't matter. Because their training programme, well, there wasn't one, but basically, you started at the bottom sweeping the floor and ended up as being chairman. The dropout rate was phenomenal. And basically, it was if you could stick the course, you made it. So I started sweeping the floor in the Huddersfield store. And unfortunately, I was doing that two years later because the guy who took me on had moved on and they didn't know that I was a trainee manager, thought I was a floor sweeper. Anyway, eventually I got moved to Leeds and started my career properly. And you know, it was really hard. It was six days a week, and you'd have to be in at eight in the morning or seven if you were letting in the breadman and you couldn't go home till maybe eight or nine o'clock at night. But there was also a great camaraderie because moving around the country to different stores, moving into flats and bed sits with your mates from Woolies, you know, it was quite an adventure.