A schoolwear firm, which relocated to Carlisle last year, has announced the appointment of a new managing director.

Winterbottom’s Schoolwear became Kingmoor Park Enterprise Zone’s 170th tenant after it relocated to the site from Accrington.

Tim Hallas will join the firm soon after five years as commercial director of Trutex and has more than 20 years’ experience in independent schoolwear retailing.

Winterbottom’s is a subsidiary company of Lowe Clothing International Limited and currently employs about 25 people in Carlisle and Knaresborough, Yorkshire.

The wholesaler sells to hundreds of school retailers across the country.

Jonathan Lowe, group managing director, said: “Winterbottom’s Schoolwear have made great progress in the last year, with a new warehouse facility, new customer service department and the recently launched ordering website for retailers.

“The team at Winterbottom’s is looking forward to working with Tim to build on the progress made and work closely with our customers to deliver them outstanding products and service.”

Its 25,000sq ft warehouse on Kingmoor Park Central is used for the storage and distribution of specialist products.

Mark Tarrant, Winterbottom’s chief financial officer, said the move to Carlisle was prompted by the firm needing a space which was designed to maximise efficiency.

He said: “They are ultimately larger facilities at Kingmoor Park and it gives us flexibility and space to grow if we need to. We have been able to design the warehouse for our needs, which means we can maximise the amount of orders we can process and the pickers know where everything is.

“It allows us to have a good level of stock on hand for customers.”

Its customer service department is also based in Carlisle, in separate premises at Paton House, Victoria Viaduct, and currently, the firm employs five people to deal with clients and three full-time people in the warehouse, plus a couple of temporary workers.

It is hoped the firm will grow and be able to take more people on.

Mr Tarrant added: “We have already made great progress, and recently launched a new ecommerce website to make things easier for customers and we’re looking forward to welcoming our new managing director as he has a lot of experience in the industry.

“We’ve had a great six months at Kingmoor Park and the ultimate aim is to bring customer service and the warehouse under one roof.”