DIYWEEK.net

Specialist footcare provider Shuropody has secured funding that will allow it to expand its presence in garden centres.
Business Growth Fund, which invests in fast-growing small and medium-sized businesses, has put £3m of growth capital into the Coventry-based company, which offers podiatry services and comfortable footwear.

Shuropody set up with a handful of outlets in 2007, and grew rapidly following its purchase of 43 stores from Boots in July 2008. In the same year it also bought the Scholl retail chain. The business now operates from 63 standalone stores and concessions across the UK.

Shuropody already has concessions in some Dobbies Garden World and Garden & Leisure Group garden centres. They include Dobbies in Cirencester, Atherstone, Chesterfield, Clifton and Milton Keynes, and Cadbury Garden and Leisure in Congresbury, Bristol. Notcutts' Rivendell Garden Centre in Widnes also has a Shuropody concession.

The BGF funding will now allow the company significantly to grow its garden centre presence, creating 200 jobs over the next three years.

Renee Wright, visual merchandising manager with the company, told diyweek.net: "We've got 25 stores on the agenda, with openings agreed between now and April next year. They will be in Garden & Leisure, Dobbies Garden World and Notcutts garden centres, and Wyevale [The Garden Centre Group] is on the list as well."

She went on: "Garden centres are very well suited to our customer. It's the age and the type of product we sell, as well as the free parking."

Shuropody is the second largest provider of podiatry services behind the NHS, with 400 employees, of whom almost 150 are qualified podiatrists. It turned over £15.8m in the year ending December 2011 and is expecting sales to double by 2015.

BGF investment director Ian Downing said Shuropody's proposition sat well within garden centres.

"Shuropody is a unique business which is already a market leader in its sector," he commented. "It has the potential to substantially increase its geographic footprint across the UK with an active rollout programme that expects to generate up to 200 jobs.

"The business model is well placed for expansion into garden centre concessions and is already working with two of the largest garden centre operators in the UK.

"Shuropody is also ideally placed to provide high quality podiatry services to patients as the NHS continues to outsource services that are expensive and complex to manage."

The £3m growth capital investment has been split into £1.5m of ordinary shares and £1.5m of loan notes. BGF will provide Shuropody with expertise and contacts and will have representation on its board.