CLOTHING retailer Shoestring is setting up shop in St Martin’s. The 25-year-old company, which has stores in Town and on the Bridge, has been fitting out a unit at the recently converted former Co-op supermarket at La Grande Rue and is due to open it tomorrow.

‘St Martin’s is a natural progression because we’ve not opened up a new one for 10 years,’ said managing director Dave Perchard.

‘St Martin’s has a bit of a buzz about it – over the last couple of years we’ve had the new Marks & Spencer Food Hall, the new Co-op supermarket and lots of small shops.

‘So, with the Co-op making their old supermarket into four retail units, it was a good opportunity for us to move into the parish.’

The store is smaller than its other two shops but Mr Perchard said it was a decent size and that it would stock most of its lines.

It has employed a new manageress and part-time staff.

Mr Perchard said it would sell men’s and women’s wear, outsize clothing, handbags and luggage and western parishes’ school uniform.

‘We hope to develop a good range of children’s and teenagers’ fashions, because there is not an awful lot that you can buy in St Martin’s.’

Shoestring’s ethos – selling quality goods at low prices – would apply in its new shop, Mr Perchard said.

‘It is difficult when your prices are low – some people think your products are inferior. This is not the case with Shoestring. Our prices are low because we buy well and we would urge people who have not been to Shoestring before to give us a chance.’

Its first store opened in the Bordage in 1981.

Mr Perchard stocked it with inexpensive factory overruns from his then home, Hong Kong.

‘These days, I spend a lot of my time buying in the UK and get over at least every two weeks and scour the country for bargains. There are always bargains, but you have to put in the time to find them.’

He said smaller retailers in the UK were finding life very difficult.

Suppliers were struggling because supermarkets were selling clothes cheaply. But he said that with a number of shops – two in Guernsey, excluding the new store, and another two in Jersey – the company had more buying power, and that people wanted to buy into it.

‘Takings are up on last year and a lot of people cannot say that.’