BROWNS, the oldest department store in York, is on the march, hunting for new sites in North Yorkshire market towns.

The award-winning family-owned store, which was founded 117 years ago, and also has a huge presence in Market Place, Helmsley, is now planning to open a new branch at Beverley, in East Yorkshire.

Beverley's empty former Picture Playhouse - once a corn exchange - whose last film was screened in 2002, is to be converted in an investment worth more than £1 million. It will add about 45 staff to 250 already on the Browns payroll.

Nicholas Brown, managing director of the store group, revealed today that he was on the lookout for other large sites in market towns, particularly eyeing Ripon as a big growth area.

He said: "You find with a lot of market towns there is a lot of customer loyalty from people who are proud of their area and want to support it."

The contract to take over the Picture Playhouse, combining neighbouring slipper baths and digging out a storage basement to create 10,000 sq ft of space, was signed with the grade 2 building's owner, Beverley businessman David Fletcher.

Mr Brown said excavators would soon be on site to begin work on the 121-year-old building, but while he hoped the new store would open there in October next year, it was more likely to be in April 2009.

Much would depend on what archaeologists unearthed during the excavations.

But was this the right time for expansion, with the retail sector generally reporting a slump over the past year and predictions of an economic slowdown next year?

Mr Brown said: "Where normally there have been seven-year growth cycles in the industry, we have had 14 years of growth.

But there are many market towns which are big growth areas and Beverley and Helmsley are among them. We have been in Helmsley for ten years and it is a very aspirational place."

Beverley, he said, had just been identified as the best place in Britain to live in a study by the Royal Bank of Scotland. It combined the best quality of life at a reasonable cost of living.

"We are quite acquisitive. The problem is getting the right space and the right property and the right location and there are plenty of growing market towns to consider. Ripon, for instance, is a big growth area where we are looking for sites between 10,000 and 12,000 sq ft where our presence will enhance the area."

Browns has come a long way since Henry Rhodes Brown opened his first business in 1890 - a drapery and clothing warehouse in Nessgate, York. Six years later he expanded it by acquiring a property in St Sampson's Square and turning it into the Six Pence Half Penny Bazaar, forerunner to Browns Department Store.

With constant expansion and millions of pounds worth of investment, the store proved itself to be the finest in the ressssgion by winning The Press Retailer Of The Year Award in 2003.