Fast-growing UK shoe retailer Hotter Shoes is already advertising for more staff just a week after opening a brand new store in Shrewsbury’s busy Pride Hill Shopping Centre.
Lancashire-based Hotter Comfort Concept, the UK’s biggest shoemaker, created 10 new jobs at the store but were taken by surprise by the storming start they have made in the town.
Shrewsbury, a longtime target for the top shoe maker and retailer, has outperformed other new openings in Edinburgh and Inverness.
It means the company is already about to take on two more staff and assistant manager Sally Bond said: “We’ve been doing very well and exceeding our targets.
“We’ve done better than other recent openings in Edinburgh and Inverness and when you consider how big a city Edinburgh is that’s fantastic.
“We’re finding that a lot of our customers are Hotter online customers and gthey’re really delighted to be able to have a local store they can come to.”
In the past two years Hotter has opened 25 new shops across the country and plans to open a further 15 by the end of the year.
Shrewsbury has been on the company’s hit list for some time and Retail Director John Nicholas said: “Shrewsbury has been on our target town list for some time as it’s the perfect location for a Hotter store. We have simply been waiting for the right property to become available.
“We already knew that we had many loyal Hotter customers in the area due to our successful home shopping channel and wanted to open a store here to provide more options for them and different ways to shop.
“Also, the catchment area and demographics of the population, together with the traditional market town feel of the centre are the reasons why we felt that Shrewsbury would be a successful location for the Hotter brand.”
The company, based in Skelmersdale, has expanded rapidly over recent years selling shoes direct to its customers from its onsite call centre and has been nominated to be part of the Made By Britain campaign by West Lancashire MP Rosie Cooper.
The Made By Britain campaign aims to highlight manufacturing success stories across the UK and raise the profile of the industry sector.
Hotter, founded in 1959, now make one in every threre pairs of shoes manufactured in the UK.
Shrewsbury Store Manager Gaynor Williams said: “We’re delighted to be bringing British designed, comfortable and quality shoes to Shrewsbury while creating 10 new jobs. Once you’ve tried on a pair of Hotter Shoes, you’ll understand the true meaning of comfort and never want to take them off.
“I’m proud to say we have a really enthusiastic and dedicated team here and we’re looking forward to welcoming new customers, giving them great service and shoes that will make their feet happy.
“Hotter Shoes is the UK’s biggest shoemaker and we are committed to designing and making comfortable footwear, we will make 1.5 million pairs of shoes in our Lancashire factory this year and every pair is carefully crafted to offer the ultimate comfort feel and fit.
“The first time you try on a Hotter shoe you have a Hotter Moment as you experience how comfortable and spacious shoes can be.”
Kevin Lockwood, Manager of the Darwin, Pride Hill and Riverside Shopping Centres, said: “We’re delighted to welcome Hotter Shoes to the town and they have certainly had an immediate impact and are proving very popular.
“They are a premium brand and the fact that they have chosen to open here in the Pride Hill Shopping Centre is a further endorsement of the Centre and of the town as a shopping hub.
“The fact that they have brought ten new jobs to the town shows how important retail is as a driver of the local economy.”
Picture : Sally Bond, assistant manager, at the new Hotter Shoes store in Shrewsbury’s Pride Hill Shopping Centre.
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