A café and an ice cream parlour are to open at one of the county's main shopping destinations, following a nautical-themed clothing shop which began trading days ago.

A Costa Coffee and a Kaspa's Desserts will open side by side, ready to take on the existing competition.

Despite having nearby rivals such as Starbucks and Creams Desserts, the new shops will take over empty slots opposite to the Chatham Dockside Outlet Centre.

Goldex Investments, the UK's largest Costa Coffee franchisee, hopes to create eight new jobs, both part-time and full-time.

The café will move into the former Friendly Phil's restaurant, at Chatham Waterside, which closed last year after its parent company fell into administration.

Costa Coffee already has a branch metres away, inside the Odeon Cinema. However, it is not known if they belong to the same franchisee.

Kaspa's Desserts will move next door, beside KFC which opened in January.

In the meantime, a nautical-themed shop from Devon has opened its first flagship store in Kent.

Lazy Jacks, a family-owned clothing company, began trading on Saturday.

The business is the latest addition to the Dockside Outlet, taking over the former Cadbury factory store, next to Spec Savvy.

It was founded in 2002 by Gayle and John Robinson from their basement flat in Teignmouth with just one style – the original Lazy Jacks drill shirt.

The name "Lazy Jacks" is inspired by the sailing fraternity, as they are ropes used on boats and yachts.

At the same time, Gayle and John owned Jack, a very lazy cat, who gave the perfect signal to establish the store's name.

They sell bright and colourful clothes and accessories, which are all under a nautical theme.

Sales assistant Beth Bishop said the Dockside was the ideal location for its first Kent store, as the marina and the riverbank make up the perfect setting.

She said: "The setting and the mall itself make this quite a good sales spot.

"We had a really good first weekend since opening, with many people coming in and shopping for our clothes."