Pavers Shoes

Pavers Ltd

Type	Family Business
Industry	High street retail
Founded	York, England (1971)
Founder(s)	Catherine Paver
Headquarters	York, England
Number of locations	100+ shops (2013)
Area served	United Kingdom Republic of Ireland
Products	Footwear
Revenue	£65,000,000 (2008 estimated)[1]
Employees	1000+ (2013)
Website	www.pavers.co.uk

Pavers Ltd, better known as Pavers Shoes is a family-owned footwear business operating in the UK and Ireland. Pavers currently has over 100 stores, all managed from the head office in York.

The company has grown rapidly in recent years, both in retail operations (with further shops are planned throughout 2014) and online. In 2011, Pavers launched its 24-hour TV footwear shopping channel on Sky 659 to allow customers to purchase shoes in their own home, via their television.

Pavers was established by Catherine Paver in 1971 with a £300 bank loan (£4,000 as of 2014)^{[ 1]}, initially by organising shoe parties with clearance stock from shoe catalogues. The first shop was opened in Scarborough along with stores in York and Hull. The shop in Newcastle soon followed.^[2]

The first outlet store was opened in 1996 at the Royal Quays outlet centre in North Shields. Ten years later, the company has outlet stores stretching from Loch Lomond in Scotland to Trerulefoot in the Cornwall.^[3]

Directors

Pavers continues to be a family-run business, run by Cathy's son Stuart Paver as the Managing Director. Ian and Graham Paver, Cathy's two other sons, have now both retired.

Stuart, along with Middlesbrough-based Steve Cochrane, owner of the Psyche Department Store, set up a sister company in 2000 to sell footwear online. This company recently amalgamated with Pavers, which brought the online shoe ordering ability with it.^{[citation needed]}

Lifetime achievement award

Founder Cathy Paver was awarded a lifetime achievement award by her peers at the 2007 Drapers Footwear awards^[4] - 36 years after first starting the company.

Charity work

Pavers supports several UK based and international charities.^[5] In 2006, through a limited edition shoe design, they raised £45,000 for Marie Curie Cancer Care.^[6]

For the past 10 years, the company has been involved with sponsoring and supporting children in the third world countries. Currently, Pavers is sponsoring three children through Compassion International: Ilboudo Djeneba, Allan Njenga and Sangeetha.^[7]

International expansion

In 2008 Pavers announced the opening of their new business, Pavers England Footprints Limited in Chennai, India^[8]

Pavers England Footprints Limited (PEFL) is a joint venture between Pavers Ltd and the Foresight Group. At a press launch, Pavers revealed they expected a sales turnover of $10 million.^{[citation needed]}

As part of the project, Pavers announced they would commission a $3 million footwear design studio in Chennai.^[9]

References