Friary Shoes Ltd

Friary Shoes Ltd We are a 120 year old family run independent footwear retailer. We sell shoes for all the family. It is now run by the 4th generation of the family. ft. in size.

Established in 1904 Friary Shoes in Lichfield is a family-owned independent footwear retailer that sells branded footwear and accessories. Children’s: Clarks, Skechers, Start-Rite, Geox and Biomechanics. Women’s:- Rieker, Skechers, Remonte, Clarks,Jana, S. Oliver, Waldlaufer, Gabor and Lotus
Men’s- Clarks, Rieker, Loake, Skechers, & Mustang.

•Friary Shoes has 2 stores in Lichfield and Uttoxeter

both based in Staffordshire.

•Our flagship store in Lichfield has a prominent location in Lichfield near the old Debenhams and is almost 4000 sq. It attracts customers from far afield to purchase from our vast selection of shoes. In the local area, we are well known for our monkey window display amusing our customers and passers-by.

•Our Uttoxeter branch is over 1000 sq. It has a huge amount of repeat local customers who are staff know by name and offers a friendly shopping experience.

•We have a large selection of shoes in stock usually over 15,000 pairs.

•We have over 25 staff, who are excellent and pride themselves on the exceptional levels of service they give our customers. “No task is too big” for them and we all really want to help our customers purchase the right shoes for themselves and their families.

•We are fully experienced in dealings with all our customers'​ footwear needs. From wide fitting shoes to orthotics or high insteps, we have seen it all and have recommended a solution.

•Friary Shoes believes in a ‘total service’ to our customers. We measure, we fit and we care about feet.

Closing Down LAST DAYAfter 120 years in Lichfield tomorrow Saturday 22nd February will be our last day of trading🥲As it ...
21/02/2025

Closing Down
LAST DAY

After 120 years in Lichfield tomorrow Saturday 22nd February will be our last day of trading🥲

As it is our last day we want to go out with a bang 💥

❗️ALL REMAINING STOCk TOMORROW WILL BE REDUCED TO CRAZY PRICES❗️

The last few men’s and women’s footwear and Handbags all just £25 OR LESS

ALL children's footwear will be just £10
First shoes, school shoes, canvas, and trainers all just £10 per pair.

It is worth stocking up

Everything must go.
We will open from 10 am until 5 pm before we close our doors for the last time.

It’s going to be busy, please be gentle with us 🙏

20/02/2025

Our Last Trading Day will be Saturday 22nd Feb
ALL KIDS SHOES NOW £20

19/02/2025

ALL CHILDREN'S FOOTWEAR
NOW JUST £20 STOCK SELLING FAST
LAST FEW DAYS

❗️CLOSING DOWN SALE ❗️ LAST FEW DAYS We are open 10-5 Wednesday to Saturday ...
16/02/2025

❗️CLOSING DOWN SALE ❗️

LAST FEW DAYS

We are open 10-5 Wednesday to Saturday


ALL CHILDREN’S SHOES AND TRAINERS ARE NOW JUST £20 A PAIR ❗️

All other remaining stock is Half the Original Price

We are also selling our fixtures and fittings this week.
Chairs and Stools
Mirrors
Slat wall shelves, arms and prongs
Filling Cabinets
Lockers
Display items
Ladders
Plus many other item
Come and have a 👀

Can we say a massive Thank you to everyone who has commented on our posts or popped in over the past week to wish us well. It’s been such a hard emotional week for us! The love we have received has been overwhelming and we are so, so grateful 🙏

Thank you so much for the huge outpouring of love and support for us over the past week whilst we have been trying to na...
09/02/2025

Thank you so much for the huge outpouring of love and support for us over the past week whilst we have been trying to navigate our way through trying to restructure our Lichfield Store. We have been absolutely dumbfounded by all the love, comments, encouragement and offers of help we have received over the past few days and we cannot thank you all enough, we are so grateful 🙏

Sadly after having to make the decision to close our Uttoxeter store we were hopeful that after working with advisors this week that we may be able to keep Friary Shoes in some format in Lichfield.

In our previous post we had mentioned how hard the last few years have been for trade. Many factors have contributed to this. Covid closures, increase of online shopping, cost of living crises, and more recently the current development of Lichfield which has had a massive impact on footfall.
Although Lichfield District Council have been very supportive to us whilst the project has been ongoing and tried hard to help us as much as they were able🙏

Like most small businesses we have given our hearts, soles and much more to survive. This week we have tried our very hardest to find a way forward for us to be able to continue in some format in Lichfield. Unfortunately there are just too many obstacles to overcome to make the business viable. The deciding factor is definitely the governments decision to raise the minimum wage, raise employers National Insurance contributions and increase the business rates by lowering the current discount all in one go. This year it would be an additional cost of £30k, just at the Lichfield store. Unfortunately we fear we won’t be the only business that won’t be able to soak up these costs and unfortunately it will push more and more lovely businesses over the brink.

Therefore we have made the heartbreaking decision to close our beloved 120 year old Lichfield family business💔

We know this will be disappointing to a lot of people and we are sorry to let you down but we really have tried our hardest and explored every option we can. We hope you can understand this is the hardest decision we have ever had to make.
Closing a business you have loved for so many years is incredibly emotional and so very difficult for everyone involved, from our staff, our suppliers, our landlords, our customers and our family. We are both mentally and physically drained and have had to make the right decision for ourselves, our health and our sanity!

Lichfield is a fabulous city, it has some of the most amazing independent unique businesses and it has been a privilege and our pleasure to be part of the community for so many decades.

WE WILL BE CLOSING DOWN WITH A HUGE HALF PRICE SALE!
EVERYTHING IS REDUCED AND EVERYTHING MUST GO!
We mean absolutely everything even our iconic monkeys 🐵🥾👢👠👟👡🩴

We will be opening from Wednesday 12th February. Between the 12th February and 1st March we will be open Wednesdays to Saturdays 10-5 until 1st March which will be the day we hang our boots up for good😔
During this time if anyone has a credit note or gift voucher from either the Lichfield or Uttoxeter store you can use these during these dates.

Once again thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your kind messages of support and understanding, we are so grateful 🙏 To each and every person who has shopped with us over the years, thank you for trusting us with looking after your children’s feet as they grew and coming back to us time after time.
We are just so sorry we can’t continue but hope you all can understand how difficult this decision has been for us. We hope to see many of you over the next two or three weeks come to reminisce and say our goodbyes😢

Adam and Tracey x

Friary Shoes has been fortunate to be part of Lichfield for the last 120 years and part of Uttoxeter for almost 40 years...
01/02/2025

Friary Shoes has been fortunate to be part of Lichfield for the last 120 years and part of Uttoxeter for almost 40 years. Over that time we have served many wonderful loyal customers, some who have been coming in to see us regularly over the years and many of you have become friends.
After COVID the last 5 years have been tough going. We had thought if we could survive that then we could survive anything! Little did we know how hard it was going to be.
Since then High Street shops have seen a decline, with the growth of online shopping and many much loved high street names disappearing. The cost of living crisis means that people are worried about food and heating and a pair of new shoes become less of a necessity.
The cost of running a business has risen so much in the past two years alone it has become harder and harder to survive. The development of Lichfield over the past eight months has also had a devastating impact on trade. The work is progressing very quickly but unfortunately we still face a number of months being in the midst of a building site. Although once completed it will be amazing and we very keen to be part of it.
However the budget in October means another blow to small businesses up and down the country, with the planned April increases of the minimum wage, the rise in employer national insurance contributions and the rise in business rates. Friary Shoes like many businesses really want to continue trading but with all these factors against us we are faced with some difficult decisions.
As a small family business we have tried our hardest to survive but with the current climate and downturn in footfall and the extra costs we face from 1st April we have had to seek external advice and make the extremely difficult decision to restructure our business. Unfortunately this means that we have had to close the door for a final time at our Uttoxeter store on Thursday 30th January.
We are absolutely devastated that we have had to do this, but we just cannot continue to lose money consistently month after month.
To each and every person who has shopped and supported us over the years we are immensely grateful without you we wouldn’t have survived as long as we have🙏
We also have the most amazing team who have been incredibly supportive over the years and especially over the past few days. You are not just employees but our extended family and this is why writing this post is so emotional because we don’t want to let you down💕
We are currently working with advisors to try to restructure the Lichfield Store which will be closed from Sunday 2nd February for a short period of time hopefully whilst we navigate our way through options.
We have had a lot of love in the past and we hope you can bare with us, we are trying our very hardest to get through this and we will keep you updated over the next few days🤞
Thank you for kindness and we hope you understand this is an emotional and difficult time for us and our teams and the business😞we are trying our very best.

Adam and Tracey x

For any enquiries we will try our best to get back to you as soon as possible 🙏please email
enquiries .co.uk

01/02/2025

WE WILL BE CLOSING OUR LICHFIELD STORE TODAY AT 4PM
SORRY FOR ANY INCONVENIENCE

Address

32 Bakers Lane
Lichfield
WS136NG

Opening Hours

Monday 10am - 5pm
Tuesday 10am - 5pm
Wednesday 10am - 5pm
Thursday 10am - 5pm
Friday 10am - 5pm
Saturday 9:30am - 5pm
Sunday 10am - 4pm

Telephone

+441543263443

Website

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Who are Friary Shoes?

We are an independent family shoe retailer. We have been trading in footwear since 1904 as a family business now in its fourth generation. We are passionate about giving our customers a good choice of quality, yet value for money footwear.

We have two stores in Staffordshire. Our biggest store in based in Lichfield and we also have a store in the market town of Uttoxeter.

Being an independent we have a huge selection of brands to choose from. The brands that we stock do change from time to time, however we currently stock the following: