Opportunity. That's the current buzz word at Frozen Value, the company behind frozen food discounter Jack Fulton, which operates 78 stores across the north of England.

With the frozen food sector reporting growth after years in decline and discount food retailers such as Aldi and Lidl growing in popularity, Frozen Value MD Kevin Gunter has set himself a long to-do list.

One of his main priorities is to move the chain out of its northern and central England comfort-zone to take the business nationwide and possibly into Scotland and Wales. Jack Fulton stores are currently located across Yorkshire, Lancashire, Humberside and Nottinghamshire but Gunter believes the time is right to expand.

"If you look at our top and bottom line growth over the past few years, it is clear we have got a model that works," he says. "We want to take this model into new areas of the UK."

Frozen Value has a turnover of £35.3m and reported a profit of £711,000 last year. Its 70,000 sq ft depot in Leeds opened in October 2005 and is in an ideal location just off the M1 to serve more shops across the UK, says Gunter. But while the depot has the potential to serve 300 stores, his immediate aspirations are rather more modest.

Six new stores are earmarked to open this year, to add to the 10 opened in 2007, a pace Gunter believes is manageable.

"Sites themselves are not difficult to find," he says. "The difficulty is finding stores that fit our requirements. Some stores also have restrictive covenants attached, which can prove a problem."

Expansion is only part of Frozen Value's game plan. It will also continue its store refurbishment programme, which saw 13 stores revamped last year with new refrigeration and tills and an expanded offer. Three to four major refits and eight to 10 smaller refits are earmarked for this year, Gunter adds.

Although the main focus will continue to be low-cost frozen food, chilled ranges are being expanded as part of the refurbishment programme. According to Frozen Value, like-for-like sales for chilled foods grew in "high single digits" over the past year and the sector represented an important part of the business.

The way in which Frozen Value sources its products means the company is also able to trial different products as the opportunity arises. Goods are a combination of core products sourced direct from major manufacturers and parcel buys bought through brokers, giving the company the flexibility of a constantly changing stock.

Gunter recently took advantage of this flexible sourcing strategy to trial the sale of fresh fruit and vegetables, non-food and alcohol ranges. The company has three shops licensed to sell alcohol and has so far tested a "very small" range of alcohol in two of these stores.

"The trial was successful but we haven't made a firm decision on whether this will continue," he says. "We will carry on evaluating opportunities in different product areas. We'll evaluate which areas give us the best returns and prioritise their roll-out in this way."

Gunter had been trialing a brokerage service since 2006 to help retailers source products at competitive prices but has now decided not to continue with it. "The opportunity to open new stores in new areas is a greater opportunity than a brokerage service," he says.

Economic slowdown presents a further opportunity, he says. Frozen Value's typical customers are demographic C and D, but Gunter expects this to broaden.

"We're hoping that because we're a value retailer our customers will stay with us and that others will come to us, too," he says.

"The success of Lidl and Aldi shows that value discount retailers are good places to shop and clear alternatives to the supermarkets. There are a lot of people out there that offer as good or better prices than the supermarkets.

"We've had a good couple of years so the challenge this year will be to continue our strong performance and retain our growth.

"With our plans to move into new areas, we are rather excited about the year ahead."n