Frozen foods specialist Farmfoods is planning to open its new Ipswich supermarket on the edge of the Whitton estate a week before Christmas - bringing a festive boost to one of the town's busiest local shopping areas.

The Aberdeen-based food retailer is currently making changes to the former Aldi store on Meredith Road that closed at the end of October. It has announced it plans to open there on Friday, December 17.

Contractors are currently working in the building and have sealed off its car park while the work on the site.

Farmfoods' current Ipswich store, a smaller unit in Bramford Road, will stay open but the discount food store will be expecting to attract more customers at its new site.

Property director Alistair Kay said the company was looking forward to welcoming customers to its new store.

Aldi decided to close the Meredith Road store after opening a new, larger, supermarket in Europa Way off Sproughton Road at Easter.

The opening will be a boost to Meredith Road which is a significant retail area with several specialist shops, restaurants and cafes.

The opening of Farmfoods is also likely to pave the way for a planning application to build a new discount supermarket - possibly a Lidl - on the site of the former B&Q Garden Centre at the Anglia Retail Park off Bury Road.

Farmfoods is a company that has been growing nationally over recent years concentrating on discounted frozen foods - both its own brands and well-known brand names - as well as some discounted brand-name non-frozen foods and household goods.

The store was built for Aldi in the mid-1990s and was its first site in Ipswich and was similar to other stores built for the company across the country.

However in recent years it has built larger stores able to sell a greater range - like those at Martlesham and London Road.

Once the Europa Way store was being built the Meredith Road store was put on the market - although the company did keep that decision under review while it considered its options.