SKOWHEGAN -- Label Shopper, a chain that offers brand-label clothing at reduced prices, will open in the Kennebec Village Shopping Center by the end of the month, Director of Stores Judy Piurowski confirmed Friday.

Label Shopper has 31 stores in New York, Vermont and Massachusetts, according to Piurowski, who said this will be one of the first three stores in Maine. A store is scheduled to open in Oxford first, she said. The location of the third store was not disclosed.

"We've always wanted to go into Maine; we finally got the sites we wanted," Piurowski said. The clothes are by famous makers, she said, such as Levi, Columbia, Woolrich and other department-store labels.

"We carry (clothing) in women's, juniors, men's, young men, plus (sizes), shoes and home decor," said Piurowski, who said she has been with the Albany, N.Y.-based company 30 years.

The new 11,000-square-foot store is located next to the Tractor Supply Co. store, the first Maine store in that chain, which opened last September in the shopping center off U.S. Route 201.

Piurowski said the company's owner, Peter Elitzer, has been in business more than 40 years. She said Peter Harris and Label Shopper is the same company, just two divisions.

According to the company's Web site, Peter Harris Clothes was founded in 1970 by Elitzer.

While still in college, Elitzer searched the market for off-price buys of designer and brand-name clothes and sold them out of a truck on the college campus as "Pete the Peddler." Continuing with the same commitment to quality and value, Peter Harris Clothes and its sister company, Label Shopper, have grown over the years, according to www.peterharrisclothes.com.

The Web site says Peter Harris buyers hunt for amazing buys of top designer and brand-name fashions -- the same fashions that are found in specialty and department stores -- but Peter Harris sells them for up to 70 percent less.

Donald Sheldon, owner of the shopping center, is excited about the newest addition -- which brings to four the number of retail chains locating there in the last three years.

A Massachusetts developer and lawyer who purchased the shopping center from Newport entrepreneur Gregory Lovley in 2005, Sheldon says he only has two small vacancies left.

"It's a good type of store for this area," Sheldon said of Label Shopper. "It's almost like a TJ Maxx-type-of-store. I called them two years ago, looking for a clothing store tenant. I did some research and went to Vermont to look at their store. They weren't interested in going to Maine. Every three to four months I'd call again."

His persistence appears to have paid off.

"I was finally able to talk to the owner," Sheldon said. "I said I liked his store so much, 'I'll work with you and I'll open a store.' He said 'You know something, I think we're ready to come to Maine.'"

Dollar Tree came to the shopping center in June 2006, Tractor Supply Co. opened in September 2007 and Olympia Sports in October the same year.

Last year, Sheldon said he remained grateful to Dollar Tree for becoming the first retailer to give credibility to the 80,000-square-foot shopping center and to Mei Lee Garden restaurant for its continued long-standing business at that location.

Once Label Shopper opens, Sheldon will have leased 74,000 square feet of space.

Darla L. Pickett -- 474-9534, Ext. 341

dpickett@centralmaine.com