Wynsors World of Shoes
| Private Limited | |
| Industry | Shoe Store |
| Founded | Bacup, England |
| Headquarters | Bacup, England |
| Products | Shoes |
| Website | www.wynsors.com |
Wynsors World of Shoes is the trading name of Courtesy Shoes Limited, comprising a chain of over 40 shoe stores in England.
Growth of Wynsors
When established in May 1956 Courtesy Shoes began life as a small number of Market Hall stalls and Shops. In the sixties Courtesy Shoes purchased two chains of high street shoe shops called Seftons and Lees of Leeds which were rebranded as Medina Shoes. Both were chains consisting of around 12 shops, Seftons based around the Bradford area and Lees in the towns surrounding Leeds city centre. With success on the high street and the desire to expand quickly Courtesy began to open concession stores within Kwik Save supermarkets at the height of Kwik Save’s success in the seventies, again trading as Medina Shoes.
Toward the end of the seventies and early eighties there was a change in trends towards out of town shopping and Courtesy began to move away from the high street. The first out of town shop opened was in Cleckheaton called The Factory Shoe Shop.[1] The success of Cleckheaton gave the company a lot of confidence and shortly after in 1984 they opened their second out of town store in Thurcroft. The previous owners of the building were Wynsor House Discount Carpets which was changed to Wynsor House Discount Footwear before eventually becoming the first Wynsors World of Shoes we know today. The store was opened by Martin Shaw from the TV Series ‘The Professionals’ one of the biggest shows on TV at the time, generating a lot of interest for the company.
The mid to late eighties saw Wynsors flourish with shops opening all around the North of England, eventually becoming a larger part of Courtesy Shoes business than the Medina stores.
As Wynsors entered the early 90’s there was a desire to expand into the branded sports footwear market, the introduction of Uni Sport pre-empted the shift in advertising focus toward the branded footwear offer and exceptional value.
This helped with the steady growth in the number of stores throughout the 1990s and 2000s and helped Wynsors establish itself as one of the largest specialist footwear retailers in UK.
Wynsors now have more than 40 stores and a successful ecommerce site Wynsors.com allowing them to supply both nationally and throughout Europe.