Leicester footwear giant reports ‘positive’ outlook

Shoe Zone, the Leicester-based footwear retailer, says revenues will fall by £1.8m for the year to 30 September, but that profits for the year will be “broadly in line with expectations”, despite a round of store closures.

The firm is predicting revenues of £158m for the year, and says that despite foreign exchange woes that affected the firm, it has continued with its ‘Big Box’ store roll-out.

The firm ended the year with 496 stores, having opened 21 and closed 35 during the period. Within the 21 store openings, six were the continued roll out of the Big Box format with latest format Shoe Zone stores being the remainder.

Nick Davis, chief executive of Shoe Zone, said: “The Group has performed well through the year and I am particularly pleased with the six Big Box stores that we have opened. These have performed in line with initial expectations and the feedback from customers has been extremely positive. There are a further 10 planned Big Box openings in the new financial year and we look forward to updating shareholders on progress at our Final Results in January.”