Shoe Zone

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Shoe Zone plc
FormerlyBensonshoe
Company typePublic limited company
AIM: SHOE
ISINGB00BLTVCF91
IndustryFootwear
Founded21 July 1917; 108 years ago (1917-07-21) in Leicester, England
Founders
  • Michael Smith
  • Christopher Smith
HeadquartersLeicester, England, UK
Number of locations
271 (2025)
Areas served
Key people
RevenueIncrease 161.3m (2024)
Increase 10.1m (2024)
Owners
  • Anthony Smith (32.27%)
  • Charles Smith (25.80%)
Number of employees
2,200 (2025)
Websitewww.shoezone.com
Footnotes / references
[1]

Shoe Zone (stylised as shoezone) is a footwear retailer in the United Kingdom. It has over 270 stores in different cities and towns throughout the UK and over 2,200 employees. The company has an annual turnover of £161 million.[2] The company's headquarters are located in Leicester, England.[3][4]

File:The storefront of the Shoezone discount footwear shop located at 175-177 High Street in Chatham, Kent.jpg
A store in Chatham, Kent, England

History

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The company was founded in England in 1917. Brothers Michael and Christopher Smith bought controlling shares in the footwear company, Bensonshoe, in 1980 (which was founded by their grandfather.)[5] By 2000, the company had 184 stores and late that year acquired The Oliver Group plc which added a further 258 stores to its portfolio.[5]

In September 2007, Shoe Zone acquired the shoe retailer Shoefayre for an undisclosed sum from its parent, The Co-operative Group, adding 300 stores to Shoe Zone's portfolio.[5] In January 2009, it bought Leicester-based Stead & Simpson and converted many stores to the Shoe Zone brand.

In 2021, the company made headlines when Peter Foot stepped down as finance director and was replaced by Terry Boot, a humorous double example of aptronyms.[6]

The company suffered from the COVID-19 pandemic and related lockdowns which resulted in declining revenue. In 2020, Shoe Zone raised debt for the first time in 15 years with a £15M CLBILS facility from NatWest.[7]

In 2021, Shoe Zone returned a profit of £9.5M and the company announced it was debt free in January 2022.[2]

Operations

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The company sells approximately 16 million pairs of footwear per year.[8] Shoe Zone also has a charity known as the Shoe Zone Trust which raises money for children's charities. Funds raised by the company have totalled over £2.3 million as of May 2022.[9]

References

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  • Error creating thumbnail: File missing Media related to Lua error in Module:Commons_link at line 62: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value). at Wikimedia Commons
  • Official website

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