National restaurant chain PizzaExpress is set to move into one of the region’s most popular shopping centres.

The firm hopes to be serving customers at Gretna Gateway early next year – providing another big-name addition to the retail destination.

An exact date has not been confirmed, but a spokesman for the firmsaid: “It is definitely happening.”

She did not give any information on how many jobs would be created at the restaurant.

The firm also submitted a licencing application to Dumfries and Galloway Council, which has been given provisional approval.

Documents add the restaurant could host school and pizza-making parties.

PizzaExpress began in London in 1965 and has more than 400 branches in the UK and overseas. This will be its first restaurant in Dumfries and Galloway.

It has two restaurants in Cumbria – in Lowther Street in Carlisle city centre and Wainwright’s Yard, Kendal.

The Lowther Street branch has been one of Carlisle’s most popular eating destinations for more than a decade.

It has recently unveiled a new look, drawing inspiration from the building’s heritage as a bank. The revamp includes new artwork and original 1930s typewriters.

Each of PizzaExpress’s restaurants is individually designed and uses well-known places, people or historical events from the area as a theme.

The artwork in the Carlisle store is made up of framed canvasses with imagery of old bank vaults, cheque book slips and money.

Gretna Gateway has proved a popular shopping and leisure destination.

It announced in May that 300 more parking spaces were being created. The £1m project takes the centre’s parking capacity to 1,100 spaces.

Work has started on the new north car park as part of a scheme that follows another phase of expansion last year and record numbers of shoppers.