Clarks shoes returns to UK production in Somerset Published duration 3 July 2017

image caption The company started making shoes in Somerset in 1825

The shoe retailer Clarks is to start making shoes in the UK once again.

The firm has announced it is to open a new manufacturing unit, featuring "robot-assisted" technology, at its headquarters in Street, Somerset.

Up to 300,000 pairs a year of the footwear firm's desert boots will be made at the facility, creating up to 80 technical and managerial jobs.

The company started making shoes in the county in 1825 but production was moved from to the Far East in 2005.

The company's desert boots are currently made in Vietnam and India and a spokesman said it will continue to source its range from its existing supply chain.

The last remaining Clarks plant in the UK, in Millom in Cumbria, closed in 2006.