Schuh has had a phenomenal first month of trading, smashing all its targets and expectations, after opening in Hull’s leading shopping centre, St Stephen’s, last month.

Takings in the first three weeks of trading were well ahead of budget.  The store has even had to hire an additional eleven members of staff to keep up with demand, with plans for more recruitment over the coming weeks.

 The new store opening on 6th April caused a huge wave of excitement amongst Hull shoppers, with eager shoe-a-holics queuing the distance of St Stephen’s to be amongst the first to set foot in the store. Shoppers began to arrive outside the store from 10.30pm the evening before. By the time the manager arrived at 7.30am the next morning, the queue extended the distance of the centre. Over 100 people came through the stores’ doors in the first hour alone.

 Schuh Regional Manager Rob Vearnals says: “We’re overjoyed with how the store has performed since opening. It has exceeded our wildest expectations!”

St Stephen’s Centre Manager Jim Harris says: “We were eager for schuh to join the other high-profile brands in the Centre. We now have an excellent brand offering to complete the shopping experience for customers, with schuh, Boux Avenue and on-trend stores such as Lipsy, Next, H&M and Superdry. We’re also looking forward to welcoming Internacionale later this summer.”

St Stephen’s stores pull in more shoppers despite BRC reports of national year-on-year footfall dip St Stephen’s recently won the retail industry ‘Oscar’, the Retail Destination of the Year award 2013. It consistently outperforms other national shopping centres on key performance indicators such as footfall and dwell time.

Despite a national year-on-year footfall dip of 5.2%*, stores in St Stephen’s continued to pull in the shoppers. As well as schuh’s outstanding performance, Fit24, St Stephen’s on-site gym signed up 182 new members in the month of April.

*Based on figures from the BRC/Springboard Retail Footfall Monitor for March 2013.