Shoe Zone

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Shoe Zone is a footwear retailer in the United Kingdom and Ireland which sells shoes at low prices. It has 400 stores in different cities and towns throughout the UK and Ireland and around 3,000 employees. The company has a revenue of £140 million. Its headquarters are located on Humberstone Road in Leicester next to the railway.

Shoe Zone also has a small charity branch known as the Shoe Zone Trust which donates a proportion of the company's profits to cancer research and charitable organisations.

[edit] History

Originally founded in 1917, Bensonshoe (as it was formerly known) was acquired by the Smith family in 1980. At this point sales were £1.6 million. The acquisition of Leicester based Tylers followed 5 years later adding a further 61 branches and sales of about £9m. By 2000 the company had 184 branches and late that year acquired The Oliver Group plc which added a further 258 stores to its portfolio. The company sells over 18 million pairs of footwear per year, and has an estimated 3,000 employees.

[edit] Acquisitions

On the 7 September 2007, Shoe Zone bought the shoe retailer, Shoefayre, for an undisclosed sum from its parent, The Co-operative Group. This will add almost 300 stores to Shoe Zone's portfolio. On January 28 2008, it bought Leicester-based Stead & Simpson.

In January 2008 Shoe Zone took on board 196 stores from struggling Stead & Simpson which was in receivership and have plans to close 100 stores while converting others into their shoe zone fascia.