Archive Search Page

A new look to part of Colne Road, is it a big corner shop or a small supermarket? It’s both, say the Heald brothers.
An advert feature by Tony Thorpe, on the opening of a new Heald’s Day and Nite mini supermarket at 202/208 Colne Rd. Brothers John and Frank are inheritors of a family business that goes back to 1923, since the mid 60s they have expanded steadily taking over eight previous Gateway stores along the way; until they can now boast an empire which stretches from Flint in Wales right across the North-West to Manchester. They pride themselves on being a family firm. In February they are moving their operations from Fleetwood to a custom built headquarters in Preston which will be the distribution centre regularly supplying their shops and keeping in touch by a computer scanning system.

As members of the National Independent Supermarkets Association, Healds benefit from buying at best prices which they can pass on to their customers. The new 1800 sq ft Colne Rd store bought and refurbished at a cost of £250,000 opened last Wednesday, there will be others this year in Colne and Padiham. The new store, part of which was previously owned by Jimmy McIlroy, carries a full range of pre packed groceries plus the kind of things you may suddenly need to replace at the most inconvenient moment, so if you ladder your tights just before the firm’s annual dinner and dance, or your Walkman’s batteries go down right in the middle of that Motorhead album, you’ll know where to go for replacements, any time from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. six days per week, and from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Sundays. Althought Healds are based outside the area, three of its key workers, director of operations Fred Watson, director Carol Booth, and office manageress Sheila Wade are all Burnley born and bred and the store is staffed almost exclusively by Burnley people, which helps to keep the atmosphere of the store “local”. Fred Watson said, We go out of our way to be a friendly local convenience store at prices that compare with the major supermarkets.” The best of both worlds.