PROFILE
Independent Footwear Retailer of the Month
Jack Cheeseman, Footwear & Fashion Today Editor, talks to independent footwear retailer Sarah Rutter of E.H.Spencer – nestled in the historic little market town of Shipston-on-Stour in South Warwickshire.
Q&A
Name: Sarah Rutter Shop: E.H.Spencer
Brands: Hotter, Start-Rite, Loake, Skechers, Alan Paine, Josef Seibel, Rieker, Gurteen, Brook Taverner, Clarks and many more...
Q: How did you get into footwear? Tell us about your background and your current business? Sarah: It’s in the family – the shop has always been a part of my life growing up; I guess it’s in my blood! I started as a Saturday girl as soon as I could – probably younger than I should have – then before and after university I worked for Rohde and Hotter in their local stores to gain further experience. While I was at uni I would travel back every weekend to work in the family shop on a Saturday. From then, I realised that retail was something I enjoyed, especially offering quality customer service and creating window and store displays.
Q: Tell us about the history of your shop and how the business have evolved. Sarah: E.H.Spencer was founded by John Spencer in 1902, who first traded in the High Street here in Shipston-on-Stour as a boot factor and clothier, but some years later he left to start farming in a nearby village; his two younger brothers, Frank and Ernest, took over the business. Sadly their partnership dissolved in 1929; Frank continued in business on the High Street and Ernest in our present property in Market Place. By 1965, the business was taken over
by Margaret, Ernest’s only child, and her husband Keith and they ran the company very successfully for 56 years. Their son, John, joined them and worked alongside them for 30 of those years and still remains the face of E.H.Spencer to this day. I then joined the business in partnership with my father [John] back in 2021.
Q: Tell us about your local customers. Sarah: Our customer base tends to be the local rural community. We are farmers as well as shopkeepers so having an outdoor lifestyle at home, we pretty much trial and test what we stock! We have regular clientele for clothing and footwear and see many of our “smaller” customers regularly for shoe
fittings. We have a fairly even mix of footwear and fashion lines in the shop, although back- to-school time is a very busy period for us, which bumps up our footwear sales. Our relationships with our customers are
extremely important to us, and we know many people on a first name basis and they love the personal service we give them. There is only a small team of us in the shop and our customers love being greeted by the same familiar faces; we’ve been serving the same families for generations and we quite often know what they want before they’ve even walked through the door!
44 • FOOTWEAR & FASHION TODAY • JUNE 2026
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