A WELL-ESTABLISHED Kendal business is bouncing back - six months after it was forced to close its store and scale down its operations in the town with the loss of 25 jobs.

Briggs Shoes will open a new shop in Kendal's Elephant Yard tomorrow (Saturday) and has launched a specialist business on the Internet.

Managing director Tom Powney said fierce competition from other shoe shops, notably the K Village on the outskirts of Kendal, had

forced the firm to shut its flagship store on Sandes Avenue in January.

The firm, founded 138 years ago, went into temporary administration last November, closing three other shops, including Ambleside, and slimming down its head office and warehouse operation in Kendal.

Mr Powney said the success of the Kendal store had been built on a 'pile it high and sell it cheap' philosophy, but it had increasingly lost business to rivals in recent years.

The firm has since sold its Sandes Avenue site and a warehouse and used the proceeds to fund redundancy payments, clear off outstanding creditors and create a base for expansion into new markets.

The Appleby Road warehouse was acquired by Westmorland Car Sales late last year, while national shoe chain Stead & Simpson completed the purchase of the Sandes Avenue store last week, in a deal believed to be worth more than £700,000.

Mr Powney said Briggs would now be concentrating on more specialist markets.

"The market place is changing dramatically in footwear.

The successful retailers now fall into two camps, either the likes of Matalan and Asda, or more niche market shops.

The traditional independent shoe shop is few and far between now," he said.

Briggs's new shop in Elephant Yard, trading as the Kendal Shoe Company, will only stock shoes made by British manufacturer Hotter, in contrast to the old store which dealt with more than 140 suppliers.

South Lakeland District Council chairman Roger Bingham, a life-long customer of Briggs, will officially open the shop, next to Laura Ashley, on Saturday morning.

The firm, which also runs the Moshulu shoe shop in Market Place, is creating four new jobs in Kendal.

It has also opened a Hotter concept shop in Cleveleys, Lancashire, and continues to operate four Briggs shops in Penrith, Morecambe, Burnley and Huddersfield.

Briggs's new online venture, supplying catering and hospital clogs, is proving successful, winning orders from customers as far afield as Dubai and Buckingham Palace.