Shoe Zone


Shoe Zone is a footwear retailer in the United Kingdom and Ireland which sells shoes at low prices. It has over 500 stores in different cities and towns throughout the UK and Ireland and over 4,000 employees. The company has an annual turnover of £241 million. The company's headquarters are located in Leicester, England.

History

The company was founded in England in 1980 when brothers Michael and Christopher Smith brought controlling shares in a footwear company, Bensonshoe, that had been founded by their grandfather. The company acquired Leicester based Tylers in 1986 adding a further 61 branches to the business. 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.
On 8 September 2007, Shoe Zone bought the shoe retailer, Shoefayre, for an undisclosed sum from its parent, The Co-operative Group, adding 300 stores to Shoe Zone's portfolio. On 28 November 2009, it bought Leicester-based Stead & Simpson and converted many stores to the Shoe Zone brand.

Operations

The company sells approximately 20 million pairs of footwear per year. Shoe Zone also has a small charity branch known as the which donates a proportion of the company's profits to cancer research and charitable organisations, they also helped Children In Need raise nearly £200,000.