Customers at The Range home, garden and leisure chain will soon be able to buy food products supplied by Sir Malcolm Walker’s Iceland retailer.

An initial agreement between the two groups will see Iceland open a store within a store at three The Range sites in the Midlands and Liverpool. Walker said the two chains were natural partners and he hoped the move would help reach people who had never shopped at Iceland before.

Chris Dawson, who founded The Range as a market stall in Plymouth in 1989 and has since overseen its expansion to 158 outlets, said the alliance would give customers access to more than 80,000 products in each store.

Iceland, which has around 900 stores in the UK, saw sales rise 8% to more than £3bn last year.

The joint venture comes as food retailers seek new ways to boost growth, with Sainsbury planning to merge with Asda and Tesco planning to launch a new discount chain.