Cordon Bleu Freezer Centres

[George 1978]

Does anyone remember those freezer centres from the early 1980s called Cordon Bleu?

I suppose that they were in the same category as Iceland and Farmfoods - a store with more fridges and freezers than you average Tesco or Sainsbury's. The Nottingham one was on Castle Boulevard or somewhere like that.

I think that they must have closed by 1986 - they may have been called Capital Freezer Centres in Scotland - I saw a an STV ad break with one on there.

I remember a Christmas advert from the 1980s on Radio Trent was done to Deck the Halls.

I am not certain, but they might have became Wallis Frozen Foods afterwards (there was one in Broad Marsh), and to cut a long story short, they might have been morphed in Farmfoods, or even Tesco might have bought some of the stores?

Or it could have been Heron or Fultons Foods these days - very "bargain basement" food store, where you would buy your Bernard Matthews turkeys before going elsewhere.

When I think of the name or phrase "Cordon Bleu" I think of those stores. I saw some adverts for Cordon Bleu in some microfilm editions of the local newspaper, when everything seemed to be 27 1/2p in those days.

Anyone on here remember them?

[staffslad]

Re: Cordon Bleu Freezer Centres

Cordon Bleu has jogged my memory but I don't think there was one in our town. I may be wrong but I got the impression that they were towards the upper end of the scale, maybe a bit higher than Iceland, though even Iceland was too up market for us. The freezer centre we patroned had just ordinary domestic chest freezers with white lids so you had to open each one to see what was inside.

Did those Cordon Bleu shops also sell freezers like Iceland did?

[George 1978]

Re: Cordon Bleu Freezer Centres

Did those Cordon Bleu shops also sell freezers like Iceland did?

They might have done, and if they sold white goods like fridges and freezers (and fridge-freezers), then the could have sold microwaves as well.

[George 1978]

Re: Cordon Bleu Freezer Centres

A newspaper advert from 1981 - you may need to look a bit more closely at it:

[Twocky61]

Re: Cordon Bleu Freezer Centres

There was Bejam which became Iceland

[staffslad]

Re: Cordon Bleu Freezer Centres

There was Bejam which became Iceland

I think our Iceland used to be a Bejam, but we didn't go anywhere near it until our usual freezer shop unexpectedly closed. I seem to remember that there were Bejam-badged freezers.

[Richard1978]

Re: Cordon Bleu Freezer Centres

My parents old Freezer had a Cordon Bleu sticker on it, I'm not sure if that was because they sold freezers as well, or just so they would remember the details.

There seemed to be a few semi-wholesale freezer shops, I think one was called the Scotch Produce Centre.

[George 1978]

Re: Cordon Bleu Freezer Centres

There was Bejam which became Iceland

I saw a 1987 ad break on YouTube which had a Bejam advert on it, and the way of advertising that they used back then was uncanny compared to either what Aldi or Lidl used in their adverts just a few years ago. I wonder whether it was the same person or ad agency that did both of them?

I bet that due to the controversy that the country Iceland had against their frozen food namesake, I am certain that the supermarket would have wished that they had continued to used the name Bejam rather than Iceland now.

[xmaspast]

Does anyone remember those freezer centres from the early 1980s called Cordon Bleu?

I suppose that they were in the same category as Iceland and Farmfoods - a store with more fridges and freezers than you average Tesco or Sainsbury's. The Nottingham one was on Castle Boulevard or somewhere like that.

I think that they must have closed by 1986 - they may have been called Capital Freezer Centres in Scotland - I saw a an STV ad break with one on there.

I remember a Christmas advert from the 1980s on Radio Trent was done to Deck the Halls.

I am not certain, but they might have became Wallis Frozen Foods afterwards (there was one in Broad Marsh), and to cut a long story short, they might have been morphed in Farmfoods, or even Tesco might have bought some of the stores?

Or it could have been Heron or Fultons Foods these days - very "bargain basement" food store, where you would buy your Bernard Matthews turkeys before going elsewhere.

When I think of the name or phrase "Cordon Bleu" I think of those stores. I saw some adverts for Cordon Bleu in some microfilm editions of the local newspaper, when everything seemed to be 27 1/2p in those days.

Anyone on here remember them?

Cripes, old post but I was feeling nostalgic and browsed the name.
I worked for Cordon Bleu just after Argyll stores bought the chain (It was called Freezer Fare) before that.
Argyll bought Safeway and concentrated all their efforts on that and Presto.
Cordon Bleu was sold off in bits to whoever wanted them, the store I worked in became an All Days which itself was taken over by the Co-Op