PAVERS Shoes, the growing York-based retail empire, is launching the world’s first-ever 24-hour TV footwear shopping channel.

If it goes as well as expected Pavers could take on 20 more people to cope with demand, bringing the total staff nationally to 820.

PaversShoes.tv will launch on April 6 on Sky channel 659 and consumers will be able to buy 1,000 different shoe brands.

The company forecasts it will increase total sales by 20 per cent, adding about £10 million to Paver’s annual turnover. The family firm believes there is enough capacity to cope in their giant automated warehouse at Northminster Business Park, Upper Poppleton.

Pavers boasts more than 100 retail outlets nationwide, as well as its pavers.co.uk ecommerce store, but wanted to launch a TV shopping channel to aid both sales and brand awareness.

Stuart Paver, managing director of Pavers, said: “We have been successfully selling Pavers footwear via several popular shopping channels for many years, so creating our own channel and having complete control over programme content seemed like a natural next step.

“Pavers has always prided itself on being an innovative retailer – being one of the first footwear specialists to offer size two shoes and a variety of width fittings – and the creation of the world’s first channel dedicated entirely to selling shoes fosters this ethos.”

Presenting the shopping channel will be Julie Peasgood, Jane Farnham and Debbie Paver.

Julie, an established actress, has had roles in Emmerdale, Brookside and Hollyoaks, Jane has hosted shows on BBC1 and ITV and Debbie has presented on the Ideal World Shopping Channel.