The crowds await Elsie Tanner's arrival.
"A nicer personality even than she appears on television". That was one of the comments heard in Halmabrit's new premises in St. James's Street on Saturday when the centre of attention was Coronations Street's Elsie Tanner (actress Pat Phoenix), who opened the new store. On her arrival the first thing Miss Phoenix did was to telephone the Central Library in an attempt to speak to her friend and colleague from Coronation Street, Violet Carson who was opening a Children's Book Week there. Later she signed autographs for the several hundred people who had turned up to see here and posed for pictures with some of the store's staff.
The firm opened the first shop in Burnley in 1965 (Pat Phoenix also performed the opening ceremony then), but had to find new premises when the first shop came under the redevelopment plan. The new premises however are considered by Mr. Harry Sherman, the firm's managing director, to be more or less ideal, having a larger floor space and three large display windows.
Halmabrit manufacture a large proportion of the clothes they sell and because of this says the firm, they are able to sell fashionable clothes at about two-thirds of the price one could be expected to pay.