It’s Cheshire’s top horse-jumping event, but the this year the Bolesworth International is set to become something of a must visit for the business community.
The event has announced that this year’s guest speaker for their business lunch is Malcolm Walker the founder and current head of Iceland Frozen Foods, and, of course something of a reality TV star.
Walker, who lives in Cheshire, founded Iceland and chaired the business through 30 years of consistent sales growth until his departure in early 2001, four years later he returned to lead one of the most remarkable turnarounds in the history of UK retailing.
Born in Yorkshire in 1946, Malcolm’s first venture was as a dance promoter while he was still at grammar school. Leaving without academic qualifications, he immediately identified retailing as the way to make his fortune, and began work as a trainee manager at Woolworths. Iceland was founded as a sideline in 1970 with a single shop in Oswestry selling loose frozen food, and a starting capital of just £30.
Malcolm who says his ‘lifelong determination to succeed�? has created 25,000 jobs and £600m in tax receipts’and is regularly inundated with requests from chat shows and business programmes after his recent appearances on the BBC TV series Iceland Foods: Life in the Freezer Cabinet, but due to a packed schedule his appearances at corporate events are very rare.
The lunch will be hosted by Nina Barbour, Director of the Bolesworth Estate and inspiration behind the Bolesworth International and will take place on Friday 13th June.
The Bolesworth event has now attained three star international status, placing it on a par with other prestigious equestrian events in the country such as Hickstead and Olympia.