LAKELAND'S flagship store has undergone a £1million refurbishment.

The new look Windermere outlet will be officially unveiled tomorrow (May 27) after five months of work.

Although nothing has changed in terms of the store's architecture, Windermere's store manager, Robin Moffat, believes that the refurbishment will offer customers a more enjoyable shopping experience.

"It's much more interactive," he said. "We've got a lot of tables where we can make it look more like a kitchen - it's trying to bring as much of it to life as possible."

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The 3,900 items on sale have also been made more visible by using lower shelves and Robin said that it is overall a lighter and more open-plan space.

For the half million people who pass through the doors of the Windermere store each year, he said that coming to Lakeland was like a 'pilgrimage' so it was important that it was up to standard.

"People have grown up with Lakeland," he said. "It's a day out. We get people coming from Carlisle, Preston and Manchester to shop here."

Employing 52 members of staff, many of whom are from the local area, it is Lakeland's longest serving employee who will have the honour of unveiling the refitted shop.

Malcolm King, the 59-year-old who has been working at Lakeland for 43 years, has welcomed the changes.

"I'm looking forward to it all being finished!" he said. "It's still the same framework but everything else is totally different and it's a lot nicer to work."

As well as focusing more on ways of effectively displaying products, the store has a much larger demonstration kitchen where customers can see how products function and taste the food that they are able to produce.

Tony Preedy, the marketing director of Lakeland, said that with the last refit taking place a dozen years ago, it was time for a refresh.

"Windermere remains our premier destination. We're the second most visited attraction in the Lake District," he said. "The site gets a lot of traffic, a lot of wear and tear, so we wanted to bring it up to the latest standards."