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Shoe repairer and key cutter Timpson to open 1,000th shop

By SARAH BRIDGE, FINANCIAL MAIL ON SUNDAY

Updated: 17:31 EST, 18 January 2014

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Expansion: Timpson plans to open at least 150 new branches during 2014

Timpson, the shoe repairer and key cutter that seems to be everywhere, is opening its thousandth shop tomorrow.

It will be on a site once occupied by a warehouse belonging to the family retail shoe business, which was sold by the chain in 1987.

It is now occupied by Tesco, which will host the new branch.

Chairman John Timpson said he planned to open at least 150 new branches during 2014.

‘I guess that makes us one of the fastest growing retailers, but we would never have survived simply by being a cobbler,’ he said. As the chain has grown, it has added engraving, watch repairs, dry cleaning and mobile phone repairs to its services.

Group sales for 2013 were up six per cent to £145million, while pre-tax profits were up 48 per cent to a record £14.9million.

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