A HEREFORD shoe shop is celebrating 150 years this month with five generations behind the business.

Robin Elt Shoes, in Widemarsh Street, now run eight branches across the country but started small.

The Elt Family first started in the shoe trade in 1872 when Albert Edward Elt took over small shop on Worcester’s High Street.

His son Albert expanded the business into a larger unit in the Shambles in 1934.

After the Second World War Albert’s son Roy took full control of the family business with a clear vision to be a retailer that sold quality products linked with timeless classic styling.

Along with this vision he also desired to grow the business into more local towns, including Hereford and Leominster.

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He started this by opening the Malvern shop in 1948. The Church Street premises now also holds the head office for Robin Elt Shoes.

In 1969, after a period of ill health, Roy merged his shops with the retail arm of church’s famous English shoes, Jones Bootmaker.

In 1991 son Robin decided to resume independent retailing as Robin Elt Shoes and took back two of the shops, in Malvern and Leominster.

From there he continued to grow the business adding Hereford, Ludlow, Pershore, Torquay, Totnes, and Worcester as well as a website.

Daughter of Robin and fifth generation Jenny Elt, managing director, said: “As the fifth generation of the Elt family in the shoe trade, I am very proud for our company to achieve this amazing milestone.”

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To mark this occasion all Robin Elt Shoes branches will be celebrating from Thursday, June 30 to Saturday, July 2 inside their shops.

To thank loyal customers, they will be holding a give away competition, where we will be giving away prizes from free shoes from top brands like Rieker, Remonte, Gabor and Orca Bay to a weekend break, luxury hampers, shoe care gift sets, handbags and much more.

“It would be amazing to see as many of our lovely customers instore over the three days to help us celebrate this special occasion,” said Ms Elt.