MORE jobs and shopping opportunities are being created in the city with the arrival of several major retailers.

Spanish clothing chain Zara opened in the new Spurriergate development yesterday and other high street stores, including fashion giant H&M, plan to come in the New Year.

Jeans store Levis revealed it may be looking at taking over the former Dorothy Perkins store, which stands nearby in High Ousegate.

Zara's 20,000 sq ft of retail space takes up three floors of the new building, which will eventually include five shops as well as 13 flats.

The company has taken on retail managers, cashiers and assistants and is already doing a roaring trade.

Zara's UK managing

director, Michael Shearwood described the chain as "a little bit more expensive than Hennes, but cheaper than Next".

Unusually, the company does everything itself, manufacturing 80 per cent of its garments in Spain.

Mr Shearwood said: "We design, manufacture and distribute our own products, and have a fantastic supply chain structure."

Jonathan Newns, a senior associate at King Sturge, agents for the Spurriergate development, said other shops in the development - H&M, Game, Phones 4 U and William Hill - would start

fitting out their premises in February or March next year.

Jeans chain Levi Strauss has already applied to York Council to display lit-up signs at the High Ousegate and Coppergate frontages of the two-storey former Dorothy Perkins store.

But a spokeswoman said: "We cannot comment, because it is only an application. It is not signed off. It is just somewhere we have been looking at."

Levi Strauss already has one shop in the McArthurGlen retail outlet complex in York and will launch another self-run rather than franchise store in Leeds tomorrow.

It will become the fifth self-run store opened in three months by Levi Strauss, which has new stores in Kingston, Surrey, Southampton, Edinburgh and Norwich.

The York store would be one of seven operated by the company in the UK and Ireland, although it also has 29 franchise stores.

The arrival of a new Topshop in Piccadilly last summer sparked "retail musical chairs", as staff of the smaller branch in Coney Street moved into the new premises.

Meanwhile, Dorothy Perkins, also part of the Arcadia group, moved out of High Ousegate into the vacated Coney Street premises.

Sheila Hamilton, retail director for Levi Strauss UK and Ireland, said: "Retail expansion is an important part of our plans for the development of the Levis brand in the UK."

Updated: 11:18 Thursday, December 08, 2005