EAGER shoppers queued for hours to get in to the new Joules store at the Designer Outlet Centre in Swindon.

Even before the doors opened at 10am yestereday, customer were champing at the bit, waiting to browse the racks of clothing and snag a bargain.

The firm, famous for its fleeces and horsey-motif wellies, ran a pop-up shop at the centre back in the summer and it was such a success the decision was made to move to another unit more than three times the size.

Early birds who bagged the first 21 places in the queue were in with a chance of winning gift cards, with a £200 voucher for the first person through the door.

Even some time after the opening the line of bargain hunters still snaked from the tills all the way through the shop to the door.

Area manager Nigel Vidler said: “I personally have not seen a queue as long as this. They were queueing right round the corner down to the North entrance.

“It’s a huge success, we’ve had fantastic support from the centre management.” 

The outlet store is the chain’s 111th.

“We’re opening between 10 and 15 new stores a year,” said Nigel.

As well as new shops planned for places including Leeds and Derby, there was also a programme of relocating stores to larger premises – something that has been proposed for the Marlborough branch.

He said that although internet shopping was proving popular, all the new stores were exceeding expectations, proving that there was still life in the high street and shoppers still wanted to inspect the physical products before buying.

“It’s about touching, feeling. It’s also about customer service. I think that the people we recruit have an affinity with the brand and they enjoy wearing it as a uniform," he said.

"While we come from the fields of Great Britain in terms of our heritage, we have got lots of new younger customers.”

Many of the new generation identified with the brand’s style and quirkiness, he said.

Dawn Hawkins, 30, from North Swindon, was one of the early customers. She emerged from the store with a new top.

“I’m a country girl really and I’m a proper fan of their stuff,” she said.

“I was so pleased when they opened the pop-up in the summer. I just wish I’d been here earlier.”

Started by Tom Joule, the firm was originally based on a farm and started selling country-style and equestrian-inspired clothes at country shows and events in the 1980s, before starting its own range of clothing.

It still has special collections for top international horse trials like Badminton and Burghley. The first products were shirts, followed by fleeces.

Now the business, famous for its Britishness and its floral prints, sells to Ireland, Germany and North America.