SEX and lingerie shop Ann Summers has secured a prime ground-floor site in Canterbury's prestigious Whitefriars shopping development.

The store will be larger than most Ann Summers shops with a floor space of 1,400 square ft.

It will open when the flagship £100m shopping centre is unveiled this summer.

The chain, whose website is titled Sex Superstore, says it is the success and popularity of privately-organised Ann Summers house parties in the Canterbury area that tested the market for the larger-than-average store.

It will be situated next to Clinton's card shop and Sunglass Hut, near to the Tesco Metro.

As well as sex toys and videos, Ann Summers stocks racy lingerie, including costumes titled Are You Being Served?, Wench, Room Service, Nurse and Dirty Devil.

Ann Summers spokesperson Phil Toomey said attitudes towards sex have changed and the chain is now a mainstream retailer. He added: "The date for opening has not been finalised, but we are due to start recruiting in April."

Spokesman for Whitefriars developers Land Securities, Martin Barr, said the chain was moving away from the image of small parties into retail outlets.

He said: "It is certainly a well-proven business idea which has taken off in a lot of centres. It identified Canterbury as a site, rather than us going to them. They saw an opportunity here.

"The nature of the business is quite different from peoples' perceptions. What we're talking about is high quality lingerie."