Food from supermarket chain Iceland is set to be sold at home and garden store The Range.

Plans to sell a selection of frozen, chilled and tinned goods at the large City Retail Park unit in Canterbury have been submitted to the council.

The home retailer, which has six stores in Kent, wants to add food to its array of stock - which currently includes furniture, garden tools and kitchenware.

Both chains confirmed they had teamed up last year to form a "strategic alliance" and Iceland food has begun cropping up in new-build and renovated outlets.

Iceland, which has a store in Canterbury just a hundred yards away from The Range, has stated it has "no immediate plans" to shut down the supermarket.

In 2011, a planning condition restricting the sale of food products at the superstore off Vauxhall Road was enforced.

But bosses at The Range, which gained planning permission for a garden centre extension earlier this year, are now hoping to lift the limitation and secure approval to sell Iceland goods.

If granted, freezer and chilled cabinets will be installed with cheese, meat and dairy products on offer.

Alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks, packet and tinned food, and household goods such as loo roll, soap and toothpaste will also be on the shelves.

The food and drink area will take up 8% of the floorspace at the 4,000 sq m store.

A spokesman for Iceland said: "Like every other retailer, we also review the prospects for our existing stores when their leases become due for renewal, and close a small handful of unprofitable stores each year.

"Iceland is an expanding business and we will open more than 45 new stores in total in our current financial year to March 2020, under both the Iceland and The Food Warehouse fascias.

"We have no immediate plans to close either of our Canterbury stores."

Last year, Iceland chairman Sir Malcolm Walker said both companies were "natural partners".

"The ethos of The Range - to bring our customers great quality products at the most competitive prices - is absolutely identical to Iceland's," he said.

"So I feel that we make natural partners in this new alliance."

The Iceland and The Range food trial was launched in three branches in the Midlands and Liverpool last year.

Meanwhile, work on a new-build The Range in Ashford is due to begin in the coming weeks.

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