A JOHN Lennon lookalike helped Bolton-based mail order technology firm dabs.com launch its first retail store.

Alan Swoffers impersonated the former Beatle as the new store opened at Liverpool's John Lennon Airport.

It marks a major breakthrough for www.dabs.com.com, which until now has operated solely as a mail order business.

The company, which employs more than 200 people on the Wingates Industrial Estate, is the largest on-line retailer of IT and technology products in the UK.

Dabs was set up in Westhoughton in 1990 as a mail order business, and re-named dabs.com in 1999 when owner David Atherton saw the potential of e-commerce.

The airport store, which employs seven people, opened on August 15.

Marketing director Jonathan Wall said: "While a broad selection of our most popular products will be on sale, the objective of our new airport store is to help raise the profile of the dabs.com brand name.

"We think of it as the physical 'shop window' to our huge virtual catalogue, offering just a small taster of the kind of products we sell on our website."

Dabs.com said it chose John Lennon Airport because it is one of the fastest growing in Europe following huge investment.

The store is based in the airport's departure lounge.