THE future of around 20 Saxone shoe stores, in the Republic is uncertain, following a decision by Sears, its parent company in Britain, to sell or close the chain.

Sears, which also owns Selfridges, said yesterday it was either closing or selling 111 Saxone and 124 Curtess shoe shops in Britain and Ireland.

However, sources in its Irish branches said they were confident that many of its stores in the Republic would be up graded and switched into other shoe store operations by Sears' British Shoe division.

Staff told The Irish Times that Sears employs up to 400 people in the Republic in its shoes stores.

Irish staff said they had known about yesterday's announcement for several weeks, but were still not certain of what would happen.

They also said that employees from one shop in Dublin's Henry Street, which had closed recently, had been rehired in other Saxone branches.

Sears shoe stores trade under several different "formats" in Ireland, including Curtess, Shoe Express and Dolcis. A Sears spokeswoman said the Dolcis stores would not be affected by the decision.

Irish staff said they expected that several of the stores would be converted, to these other formats. Dolcis for example, is aimed at younger, more fashion conscious consumers.

Shoe Express is a self service operation where shoppers pick the shoes from racks of boxed shoes and then bring them to a staff member to pay.

Other Sears formats include Shoe City and Hush Puppies, and it has a large presence in the North. The Sears spokeswoman said the group was not withdrawing from the shoe shop business and it would still own more than 1,000 stores when it sold or closed its Saxone and Curtess stores.

Asked if the Irish stores were losing money, the spokeswoman would only say that they were not "significant profit making stores". Sears said its overall sales over the critical Christmas and New Year trading period had been flat.

The company put aside £30 million sterling to cover's the cost of this withdrawal. Its sales were hit by a downturn at its British Shoe division, which reported a 10.9 per cent fall in sales on a like for like basis. It said reorganising the shoe stores would save £8 million in 1997-1998.

Sears chief executive Mr Liam Strong said the group's key priority this year would bed the performance of British Shoe and it would be accelerating the restructuring of the footwear business around their core brands.