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Employees of a United Kingdom company renowned for its footwear are walking tall, for they have earned a 2001 Queen's Award for International Trade.

Clarks, the UK's biggest shoe retailer and the world's leading non-sports shoe brand, distributing its products in more than 150 countries, has reported another year of satisfactory growth in sales and profits.

More than 40 per cent of its business is outside the UK and in the past four years the volumes in overseas markets have increased by 50 per cent.

Profits in the United States, the largest market for Clarks outside the UK have increased four-fold, since 1996.

In Japan, sales of its Originals range have grown to more than 400,000 pairs and the brand is one of the best-known foreign names in footwear.

Earlier this year, the company announced the acquisition of Elefanten, the major children's shoe brand in Germany, in a deal worth 23 million pounds sterling.

The business started after Cyrus Clark set up his sheepskin rug business in Street, Somerset, in 1825. This metamorphosed into one of the world's great shoe brands, after his brother, James, experimented with sheepskin slippers made of rug off-cuts.

Last year (2000), Clarks celebrated its 175th anniversary and the 50th anniversary of one of its best-known products, the desert boot.

This has been followed by a number of equally innovative products forming the basis of the Originals collection which is in growing demand around the world.

From the late 1940s to the 1970s the company enjoyed great success during the baby boom after the second world war and became the dominant children's brand in the UK market. The expansion of its manufacturing base in the UK was matched by a move into retailing which, along with its existing wholesale business, made Clarks products available throughout the UK.

At the same time, its international adult business grew through the success of its classic originals, the desert boot and the Wallabee. This men's casual footwear business was the springboard for a widening of the company's international ranges, such as Springer shoes and sandals for women.

Clarks has led the way for the footwear industry in perfecting computer-aided design and manufacturing systems for its internationally renowned products. It has about 15,000 employees, almost 700 shops selling nearly 40 million pairs of shoes a year and a turnover of almost 900 million pounds.

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Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
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