PAVERS Ltd is the shoe shop empire that Catherine Paver launched 40 years ago and fostered into greatness.

Shoe-shop.com is the online footwear retailer that her son, Stuart, founded and built into Europe's largest online shoe store, offering tens of millions of pounds worth of famous brand footwear.

And for the moment, with both pitching for the title of The Press Business Of The Year, they are gentle rivals.

But, naturally, they have a lot in common. They share the same £3 million, 40,000 sq ft base at Northminster Business Park in Upper Poppleton, York, including its hi-tech distribution warehouse, and Stuart is managing director of both ventures.

Pavers Ltd is targeting two categories, Large Business Of The Year and Retailer Of The Year.

It is armed with stunning statistics, given that it has been growing at 30 per cent per year for the past decade and now has 62 stores - comprising 11 full-priced shops, 18 discount concessions and 30 outlets, plus three Staccato stores specialising in catwalk brands.

The total effect of that was to generate a net profit of £6.9 million by the end of January, plus 800 jobs all over the UK. Turnover and profits are expected to grow by another 20 to 25 per cent this year. And the expansion goes on.

Shoe-shop.com, with 50 employees, was started by Stuart seven years ago, and powered its way through the bursting of the dotcom bubble to the point where sales both on the internet and through catalogues are expected to hit £10 million this year, with profits of around £2 million.

It is hardly surprising that the business is seeking the Growth Business Of The Year title.

It means that soon, shoeshop.com will outgrow its present home. Now Stuart is in the process of applying for planning consent to build a new 25,000 sq ft distribution centre on three levels next door - a project which should take two years, by which time the business will be selling about £20 million- worth of footwear, or nearly one million pairs.

Stuart, a former finalist as the Press Business Personality Of The Year, said: "We can grow the business to a minimum of £50 million turnover within the next seven to eight years, with about 120 direct employees.

"This equates to around 12 per cent of the footwear mail order market, but less than one per cent of the overall market - still leaving us a lot of potential growth."

He has always believed retail skills and first-class management would win in the long run and lead to the domination of the digital market.

He said: "It has never been about tons of venture capital and the fanciest of products.

"The only thing that will win in the end is an understanding of customers and the products."