Trendy shoe retailer Office has foot hold in Basingstoke's Festival Place (From Basingstoke Gazette)

Trendy shoe retailer Office has opened for business in Basingstoke's Festival Place Shopping Centre

6:35pm Thursday 23rd August 2012 in Business By Richard Garfield

DEDICATED followers of fashion made a beeline for Basingstoke town centre as Office arrived in Festival Place on Monday.

The young fashion footwear retailer is the latest store to open for business in the award-winning shopping centre, creating 15 jobs.

Store manager Jess Duff, who was previously the assistant manager of Office’s Southampton branch, was clearly delighted with the first day of trading at the bright, stylish and modern shop.

She added: “It’s been absolutely brilliant – the amount of people who have stopped as they have realised we have opened, it’s been great.”

Impressed with the store’s location, Jess said: “Basingstoke is a real up and coming place and we just wanted to be part of Festival Place. It’s a modern shopping centre that attracts our type of clientele.”

Office stocks its own label footwear along with big brand names such as Converse, Nike, Underground Creepers, Dr Martens and Jeffrey Campbell.

Keen to explain that the shop does not exclusively offer top quality shoes to fashion conscious young men and women, Jess said: “We go for all ages, as we cater for kids right the way through to older people. For example, earlier today we had a couple in their 80s, who were pleased that they didn’t have to go all the way to Reading to find their nearest Office.”

Admitting that the brand is better known with the younger generation, she said: “I’d describe Office as a top of your high street shop. It’s not a designer shop – but it is high-end fashion. “Everything we do is individual to us. You’ll see other retailers cottoning on to our ideas and then we’ll stop that and move on to something else.” Office is a growing name in the world of shoes, with more than 80 stores across the UK and Ireland.