Sales are budget frozen supermarket Iceland rose 8 percent in the year to the end of March, boosted by the expansion of its Food Warehouse chain.

Sales for the 53 weeks to the end of March rose to just over £3 billion, with like-for-like sales growth at 2.3 per cent. However, adjusted earnings before tax, interest, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell slightly to £157.1 million.

Growth was driven by the expansion of Iceland’s Food Warehouse chain, which grew to 59 stores after 23 new openings across the year.

Food Warehouse stores are largely based in retail parks and are three times the size of Iceland’s high street outlets.

The company said the strong figures makes them “increasingly confident of our ability to trade the two store formats alongside each other in a growing number of towns across the country.”

Managing director Tarsem Dhaliwal said: “This year we have continued to take a long term view and to invest for the future: expanding our store footprint, enhancing the appeal of our existing stores through a major programme of refurbishments, growing our award-winning Online business, continuing to roll out new and exciting food lines that are unique to Iceland, and developing our supply chain to support the growth of our retail estate.”