Warm Septembers lead Iceland to delay launch of autumn foods

Iceland’s executive chair said ‘terrible weather’ in early summer and erratic conditions in July had made it difficult to predict demand. Photograph: PetaPix/Alamy

The budget grocery chain Iceland is to delay launching its autumn range, including an expanded choice of pies and pastries, this year in response to increasingly warm September weather.

Richard Walker, the executive chair of the Deeside-based retailer, said Iceland had decided to push back its seasonal shift towards increasing the range of pies, pastries and other cool-weather favourites available in stores – and associated promotional activity – by two weeks from its historic norm to mid-September.