RAPIDLY expanding food and homeware store, The Food Warehouse, will open for business at Southampton's West Quay retail park next week.

Described as "Iceland's bigger little brother", the frozen food chain will offer a cash-and-carry format alongside the more traditional Iceland brand.

There will also be a wide range of homeware goods on offer.

To celebrate the opening, The Food Warehouse will be offering all customers the chance to win a gift.

Prizes will include a Morphy Richards kitchen makeover and vouchers to spend in store.

The store will open at 9am on Tuesday December 3 and will open until 8pm every night, apart from Sundays.

The Food Warehouse is one of the most rapidly-expanding ma,es in the retail sector.

In a recent interview Richard Walker, managing director of the frozen food chain and son of Iceland founder Sir Malcomlm Walker, said the chain has "active and aggressive" plans for new stores.

First launched in 2014, the Food Warehouse stores – largely based in retail parks – are around three times the size of traditional Iceland outlets.

Mr Walker said: "Retailers are shedding space and we are looking at every one of those."

He is also growing the core Iceland chain – currently standing at around 870 stores in the UK – with a few extra a year to "fill in the gaps".

Mr Walker said he believes The Food Warehouse is successful because "the millennial generation is increasingly voting with their wallets."