WORK is set to begin on transforming Colchester department store Williams & Griffin in January - and bosses have warned it won’t be a quick job.

The firm is spending £30million to make the store 50 per cent bigger.

Work will begin in January 2014 and is expected to take two years.

Directors are aiming to ensure it is still business as usual.

Lorraine Barnett, sales and marketing director, said: "We will try to complete the refurbishment with as little disruption as possible."

"We will try not to move departments too many times but because of the nature of the build, there will be points when we have to do so."

Work has already started in the arcade which runs alongside the shop.

The single storey part of the shop will be demolished and, in the long-term, will be rebuilt as three storeys.

Larger departments will be created for men's and women’s wear and extra lifts and escalators will be installed.

A new cafe will be created on the first floor looking out on to the High Street and there will be a new rooftop restaurant on the second floor.

As part of the redevelopment, Radcliffe gun and fishing shop in Colchester High Street will be absorbed into Williams & Griffin.

My Icon fashion shop has also been bought and is now being used temporarily as a clearance shop.

It will later serve as a walkway leading through to a temporary building set up on the site of Colchester Council’s car park behind the town hall.

The temporary building will open in the autumn and will become an extension to the main store with a gift emporium for Christmas.

In the new year, it will converted into a “shoe mecca” until the redevelopment is completed.