Work has started on a major redevelopment at the headquarters of one of South Lakeland’s largest employers.

Lakeland Limited, the award-winning home and kitchenware retailer and mail order company, expects to complete the £7.5 million project next spring, in time to mark its 40th anniversary.

The scheme, which is being carried out in phases, will transform the family-owned firm’s head office next to Windermere Station, resulting in a brand new flagship store and almost doubling the amount of office space.

The expansion is expected to create around 100 new full-time jobs over the next five years.

The company says the changes are vital to the company’s future prospects, enabling it to continue growing while remaining in the heart of the Lake District.

Border Construction has secured the main contract for the new building and refurbishment work, which is expected to be completed within 12 months. Border Construction also built Lakeland Limited’s Kendal distribution centre.

Other key suppliers on the Windermere project are Hanson Walford Marston architects in Kendal; R.G. Parkins Structural Engineers, also of Kendal; mechanical and electrical engineers the Blezard Partnership of Preston; and Blackpool-based quantity surveyors Holden and Lee.

Demolition work has begun on the old warehouse at the Windermere site, which will make way for a new two storey store, with retail on the ground floor and a café/ restaurant above it.

The new store will be twice as big as the present one, which attracts 500,000 visitors a year, and should be finished by the beginning of next year.

Work will then begin on the existing shop and offices, which will be reclad outside and a small single storey extension added. Buying department staff, who would have been affected by construction noise, will temporarily move to Kendal for six months.

Lakeland Limited marketing director Julian Rayner said the company was growing at the rate of 20 per cent a year and currently had around 300 full and part-time staff at Windermere.

“We need the capacity for another 30 to 50 people a year to add into the site. The new building will have a much larger call centre and more office space, and we hope to continue that growth,” he told Business Gazette.

“The redevelopment enables us to have a flagship store in Windermere. We are very much a Lake District business and we wanted to have a store in Windermere that we were extremely proud of. The new store is something that we think not only Lakeland Limited will be proud of, but also Windermere too.” Mr Rayner said the new facilities would make a big difference to the Windermere site, which was bursting at the seams at present.