Valentina, the Italian delicatessen, restaurant and shop concept, which currently has eight sites in London, Surrey and Kent, is opening its ninth unit in Clapham Junction.

It has secured the Big Fat Panda site at 281 Lavender Hill, for the new site, which will open next month.

This newest addition to the Valentina family boasts an estimated 5,000sq ft site area and will be able to cater to a total of 110 covers.

Valentina Fine Foods is jointly owned by the Zoccola and Arcari families, both of whom originate from Sant’Elia Fiumerapido, a small village near Monte Cassino southeast of Rome.

Bruno Zoccola said: “We are very excited about the latest addition to our family business. Clapham Junction has a vibrant atmosphere with a great mix of young families and professionals. All of our other sites are known as ‘where the Italians eat and shop’ and we are hoping that at Clapham Junction, our guests will feel as though they are experiencing Italy when they walk into our store and restaurant.”

Earlier this year, Zoccola told M&C the company had secured investment to accelerate its opening rate over the next five years.

“We have taken on an investor and hopefully secured enough money to take us up to 18-20 sites in the next five years,” Zoccola said.

“We said we would get 10 in a cluster for serviceability and to keep an eye on them, then once we get past 10 we will maybe look at university towns and other major cities.”