Considering he's just snapped up one of the leading names in designer footwear and posted a pre-tax profit of almost £7 million, Michael Ziff is in a surprisingly subdued mood.

The ink's barely dry on Stylo's £1.5 million takeover of Shelly's Shoes - a name sufficiently desirable for Geri Halliwell who was recently seen sporting a pair.

But the charismatic chief executive and chairman of the Apperley Bridge firm is not getting carried away.

Asked if he's confident Stylo has turned the corner after a turbulent few years, Mr Ziff points to three risk factors outlined in the recent company results, including the economic uncertainty triggered by the war in Iraq.

"It's too early to make predictions," he insists. "It's a tough environment out there."

And the 49-year-old's hesitancy is understandable. By his own admission, Stylo - owner of the two major high street brands Barratts and PriceLess - has "got out of jail" in the last few years.

Branch closures, brand names axed, redundancies and profit warnings were all too familiar.

As he relaxes back in his chair, tie discarded once the photographs have been taken, he speaks frankly and openly about the problems his family firm has experienced.

"There were bank pressures at the time and we were borrowing a lot of money," recalls Mr Ziff. "There were a number of trading issues and the chain was very run down. There were three years of very poor performance."

Michael took over the chairman's role from his father in 2000.

"For both of us, it was a very difficult time," he said. "The business is very much built around the family and it was about the pride of keeping it going successfully as much as anything else.

"Although liquidation wasn't realistic, there was a danger of becoming potential take over targets. That was the threat. Fortunately, the banks were very supportive of us and I suppose that helped to get us out of jail."

The trouble started about seven years ago when Stylo, owners of the famous Barratts chain since 1964, acquired the Hush Puppy and Saxone brands.

The deal meant Stylo owned around 1,000 shops, controlled eight per cent of the market, employed 10,000 people and held stock worth £54 million. But it was fraught with problems.

"We found the various brands very difficult to integrate for a whole host of reasons," said Mr Ziff. "The British shoe industry was going through a massive reorganisation and there was a big fall-out in the high street. We ran into trouble during 1998 and it took us three years to get through it.

"The purchase of Hush Puppies brought a very good brand to the table and we thought we could develop the Saxone name - but we were wrong."

The turnaround, which culminated in last month's purchase of Shelly's, was triggered in June 2000 with the sale of the 15,000 sq ft Barratts store in London's Oxford Street.

The move helped release cash back into the business and marked a determined move to reduce the firm's stock levels, which have now been halved from their peak to £24 million.

A branch closure programme and new focus on the Barratts and PriceLess shops began to reap dividends. Staff numbers are now around 6,000 with 300 at Apperley Bridge.

The recovery is still ongoing with a programme of refurbishment for the remaining 254 Barratts shops and 353 concession outlets.

"The new look was definitely required," explained Mr Ziff. "One of the reasons Barratts struggled at the end of the 1990s was because there had been no investment in its shops for ten years. Barratts had become very dowdy and very old, even though it still sold young footwear. We've given it a much younger, trendier, cleaner look."

And the addition of Shelly's will give Stylo a whole new foothold in the designer market. Mr Ziff said it was planned to take successful themes from the Shelly's range and apply them in the Barratts and PriceLess portfolios, while keeping them fiercely separate.

Although Shelly's London offices are to close with the business moving to Bradford, the firm is retaining the highly rated design centre in the capital.

"The Shelly's brand is much larger than the business and we will continue to trade it up. They are cutting edge style for the David Beckhams of this world."

Mr Ziff is keen to point out that the troubled acquisitions of previous years have not put him off further deals.

But - despite being a keen businessman - the office wall adorned with family photographs and the old cricket bat that rests in the corner of the room give a hint to Mr Ziff's real passions.

He plays for three different cricket teams both in Yorkshire and London and is chairman of Yorkshire Cricket Club's members' committee.

And it's clear he would be the proudest dad in the world to see his three sons - Sam, 15, Henry, 13, and Alexander, 12 - scoring runs at Headingley rather than big deals in the business world.

He's rather less inclined to make such bold predictions for his firm. The recent report contained a warning about growing operating costs in the concession business.

"This time last year Barratts was performing better than PriceLess, but this year Barratts is finding it a bit of a struggle, even though sales are still up," he said. "There's a lot less customer confidence out there."

Stylo might be back at the crease, but there's still some tough deliveries to face.