Freshco plc is an American multinational supermarket company that operates a chain of stores under the Freshco, Freshco Freezers and Freshco FastTrack brands in both the United States and the United Kingdom.
The company purchased the Albert Street branch of Firman's Freezers in Weatherfield in August 1998, rebranding it under Freshco Freezers fascia. The branch is often frequented by the residents of Coronation Street.
The current company slogan is "Freshness That's Right Up Your Street".
Opening the Albert Street branch[]
Curly Watts was dismayed to hear in August 1998 that his boss, Firman's Freezers owner Eric Firman planned to retire and sell his chain of shops, including the branch that Curly managed on Albert Street to American supermarket firm Freshco plc. Fearing that his job would be threatened by the takeover, Curly persuaded Eric to put in a good word with the new senior management team.
Firman's Freezers had recently relocated from their Albert Road store, which was formerly a branch of Bettabuy, to the larger premises on Albert Street, which were ideal for the extra lines of produce that Freshco stocked. The buyout happened imminently, and by the end of the month the store had been rebranded in Freshco Freezers fascia.
Pre-empting a management reshuffle, Curly researched the company and their values, preparing the store and its staff for the arrival of a figure of senior management posing as a customer. A few days later, when Alma Baldwin was approached by an American customer asking about Freshco produce, Curly automatically assumed that it was owner Alan Bussellmire, also known as "Al Freshco", and the pair did all they could to go above and beyond for the man, personally shopping for him, offering him coffee at the checkout and asking if he needed a lift home. The two celebrated their efforts, not realising that he was just a man passing through Weatherfield to attend a wedding. During their celebrations, Curly was horrified when former Firman's sales assistant, Anne Malone appeared introducing herself as area manager.
Concerned that Anne would develop an obsession with him again, he told Alma that he planned to resign. Anne urged Curly to give her a chance and not walk out of a promising career with an up and coming company. Despite being talked around, Curly was dismayed again when Anne told him that as part of the takeover there had to be cutbacks and instructed him to sack part of his workforce, including Alma. When Curly refused, Anne told Alma that she was not going to be made redundant as Curly thought so highly of her.
Curly eventually learned to put trust in Anne when she confided in him that she was going to be promoted to regional manager and planning to suggest he was made area manager. Unbeknown to Curly, Anne had stolen one of his books and had used some of the letters on the pages to create an extortion letter, demanding £50,000 from the business. Believing it to be from Spider Nugent and Toyah Battersby, with whom he previously had an altercation with at Firman's, Curly resisted his urge to contact authorities though when another letter arrived, Anne encouraged him to do so. The police planned to catch the supermarket blackmailer by having Curly make a money drop whilst under police surveillance. Curly was alarmed when he had to wear a bulletproof vest and was a wreck when the police didn't catch the blackmailer. Anne made a great show of thanking him before making DI Fox know that he felt bitter about the Freshco takeover.
Planning to frame Curly, Anne placed a tampered jar of beetroot amongst the others in the aisle and sent another letter to alert Curly, warning that one contained glass. When Curly took his afternoon off, Anne called in the police and voiced her suspicions that he was the blackmailer. Returning the damaged book to 7 Coronation Street, Anne tipped off the police and Curly was arrested when they discovered it, with the letters missing from the pages.
Curly was charged with trying to extort money from the business and was bailed, telling DI Fox that he thought Anne planted the book. In her defence, Anne told DI Fox that Curly was in love with her and obviously the extortion was his revenge due to the fact she had been promoted to area manager. When Alma overheard, she realised that Anne has set Curly up. Later in the day, Alma received a note from Curly telling her that he was going on the run as he didn't want to go to jail.
Alma and Spider set out to find Curly during October, hoping to free him of the charges by contacting Sheila Dixon, an ex-Firman's sales assistant who was witness to Anne setting up Samantha Failsworth on a shoplifting charge in the previous February. When Alma failed to find Sheila, Spider plotted to gain Anne's affection and she admitted that she was behind the letters. Spider was alarmed when she told him that she had a plan - she'd set Alma up by writing another letter, this time with Alma's fingerprints on it. Anne showed Spider the letter and was picked up by the security camera, though when Alma tried to retrieve the tape she was interrupted by security guard Trevor. When Anne discovered Alma's plan she fired her, and Spider tried his best to talk Anne round but Trevor refused to let him into the store. A deluded Anne sprayed antifreeze in the lock-up freezer, planning to get Spider arrested for criminal damage. She was horrified when Trevor closed the freezer door, unaware she was inside.
When Anne's frozen body was discovered, DI Fox told Spider that he was the prime suspect and took him in for questioning, thinking he killed her as an environmental protest. Fox let Spider go after Alma backed up his story and the videotape was found. Realising that only Anne and Spider knew she was fired, Alma returned to work and was amazed when she was promoted to temporary manager in Curly's absence by regional manager Aiden O'Donnell.
By this time, Freshco's operations had expanded to thirty-seven stores, compared to just ten stores in 1995.
Into the new millennium[]
In January 1999, Fred Elliott and Ashley Peacock were employed to open a butcher's counter within Freshco on Albert Street, and when Curly returned to Weatherfield in March, he was stunned to see that Alma had taken on his role and had allowed Jackie and Tyrone Dobbs to lodge at No.7 in his absence. Curly demanded that Aiden O'Donnell re-employ him as branch manager, saying that Freshco owed him for employing Anne Malone and endangering his life. He scared them into giving him his job back and a company car. Alma was annoyed to be demoted to sales assistant.
When Curly forced the Dobbses out of his house, Tyrone was forced to sleep rough near the bins behind Freshco, and beg for money on the streets. Curly felt guilty when Tyrone explained that Jackie was back in prison after assaulting his dad's girlfriend and promised him 50p for each trolley he could locate in nearby streets and bring back, and gave him odd jobs to complete around the supermarket.
In June 1999, following the breakdown of her marriage with Mike Baldwin, Curly supported Alma and invited her to the Freshco Ball. Ashley used the occasion to make moves on Maxine Heavey. Assistant manager Nita Desai was devastated to overhear Alma and Audrey Roberts bitching about her, with Alma saying she was throwing herself at Curly in order to get ahead at Freshco. Audrey was shocked when Fred Elliott proposed to her at the ball. Maxine was equally stunned when Ashley proposed to her.
Nita's attempts at becoming closer to Curly resulted in the other staff quizzing him about their relationship, and he let everyone believe they were an item. She was horrified and told him to put people straight before she resigned.
Ken Barlow enquired about a position as a Freshco trolley pusher in August 1999, leaving Deirdre Rachid furious when she discovered that Ken accepted Curly's menial job offer. He assured her that he wanted a job where he didn't have to think but she felt it was humiliating. Deirdre was even more embarrassed when her mother Blanche Hunt discovered Ken working at the supermarket.
In November 1999, Curly was adamant to strengthen the team spirit in his branch and tried to organise a team for a "Forward with Freshco" team building initiative that had been proposed by senior management. When the Albert Street staff; Curly, Alma, Ken, Fred, Ashley and Nita arrived at Benbury Lodge for their team building weekend, they were appalled by the basic accommodation and found they were to be constantly assessed by Freshco boss James Kitching. Fred and Alma refused to stay as it was like a prison camp, but Curly and Nita forced them to stay, saying they had to show what their branch was made of. Their first test was to use planks to cross a river. Nita solved the problem but Fred ended up falling feet-first into the river. Curly worried that his team would let him down and he'd be fired.
During the second activity, the team stumbled through the moors all night. Ashley worried that Fred couldn't cope whilst Curly turned into a dictator, bossing the others around. Nita challenged his leadership and took charge, which impressed Kitching who encouraged her to apply for a role as regional supervisor. Fred twisted his ankle so Curly suggested leaving him. Ashley refused to abandon him and Nita suggested they carry him between them. They leaned him against an old gate and were sympathetic towards him until they found Fred secretly eating chocolate. Curly was forced to hand control over to Nita when the others looked to her.
After the weekend, Nita was thrilled to be presented with the individual award for achievement and to be asked out for a drink by James Kitching, though Curly was alarmed when he belittled his leadership skills.
Nita received news that she didn't get the job in mid-December and tackled James Kitching, realising that he just led her on to get her into bed. He turned it round, telling her it was obvious she slept with him to crawl up the ladder and didn't want to see her again. Just as she planned to transfer jobs back to the corner shop, she discovered that her father Ravi had sold all his shops to her cousin Dev Alahan. After selling her house to help her brother Vikram fund the launch of Street Cars, Nita realised that she has little left in Weatherfield and successfully applied for a managerial position at Freshco's flagship Scottish store in Inverness and left in May 2000.
Siege[]
In October 2000, Linda Sykes's brother Dean and his mate Lenny Larkin staged an armed siege in Freshco, holding Curly, Mike, Alma, Ken, Fred, Ashley, security guard Frank O'Connor and checkout girl Wendy Jones hostage. Frank was due to retire from the supermarket on the night of the siege and blamed himself for allowing Sykes and Larkin into the store. The pair's plan to rob Freshco soon backfired as the safe was locked, and physically could not be reopened until 6.00am the next morning, due to the device's automatic system.
The hostages eventually got hungry and uncomfortable, so Dean and Lenny reluctantly allowed them to have a barbecue using items from the store shelves. Again, this plan backfired as the fire alarm sounded, alerting the fire brigade who quickly arrived on the scene. Despite Dean's best efforts to turn them away by having Curly tell them that there was nothing untoward happening, the fire brigade contacted the police. This led to a lengthy negotiation between Dean and the police. When Dean refused to listen to sense, the police rushed in. Markswoman Emma Taylor shot Dean - who after going into cardiac arrest in the ambulance on the way to Weatherfield General - later succumbed to his injuries.
Meanwhile, Lenny panicked and took Ashley with him to Curly's office, threatening to kill Ashley if his demands were not met. Fred soon came to his son's rescue and tried to reason with Lenny. This only escalated things however, as Lenny then decided he would shoot Fred instead. In desperation, Ashley attacked Lenny and took the gun. Fred then told police that the crisis had been averted, and that they could come up to the office. Fred later reflected on the situation, realising that Ashley saved his life, as Lenny was led away by police.
Upon becoming a councillor in the following May, Curly quit his role as branch manager, ending a twelve year period of working in supermarkets Bettabuy, Firman's Freezers and Freshco between the Albert Road and Albert Street sites.
Expanding the business[]
In February 2011, Freshco launched their first convenience store version of their supermarket, with Dev Alahan being dismayed that a Freshco FastTrack had opened near one of his shops in Manchester. In June of that year, Gary Windass grew jealous of his girlfriend Izzy Armstrong meeting up with her Freshco colleague and friend Will, screening her calls and pretending that Izzy was out when he called round at their bungalow. Izzy was furious with Gary when she found out.
In July, Sean Tully read in the Gazette that Freshco were running a "Search for a Star" competition and were looking for a four-year-old to front the campaign. Sean asked Marcus Dent if he'd take his son Dylan Wilson to the audition, and they discovered that Maria Connor had put her son Liam forward for the campaign also. The gay store manager Anthony took a shine to Marcus, leaving Maria annoyed at the favouritism. Marcus got a call to say that Dylan had been successful and they'd like him to be in the ad campaign too, leaving Sean jealous.
During their Freshco photo shoot, Marcus and Dylan were interrupted by Sean who forced his way in and parked himself next to them, explaining that he was Dylan's dad. Sean ruined the photo shoot, Dylan became upset and Marcus had to take him back home.
In 2014, Deirdre Barlow mentioned that the Freshco aisles had been narrowed and there had been more self-service checkouts.
In early 2016, Weatherfield Council were considering the development of a new and expansive Freshco store on Finbury Road which would encompass a cafe. Recently-elected councillor Sally Metcalfe declared her opposition to the development, as it would harm local businesses such as The Kabin and corner shop. However, in April, Jason Grimshaw managed to close a deal to have his building company work on the development, at the insistence of work partner Pat Phelan. Feelings toward the development divided the street, with business owners dead-set against it. However Jason and Pat, as well as a select few other residents were firmly in agreement with it.
In October 2017, following her losing her job at Underworld when the factory went out of business, Sinead Tinker was relieved to be employed by Freshco as a sales assistant. She remained there until Underworld's reopening in the following April.
Freshco Four campaign[]
In November 2019, after the birth of Chesney Brown and Gemma Winter's quads; Aled, Bryn, Carys and Llio, Freshco marketing manager Tara Swift approached the family with the proposal that they appear in a new marketing campaign for the supermarket. Although reluctant to take part, the couple were forced to negotiate with Tara upon discovering that Gemma's mother Bernie had overspent by £500 on the hotel mini bar in Llandudno and they couldn't afford to pay it. Chesney and Gemma agreed to aim for £10,000 and were floored when Tara opened with an offer of £50,000, and settled on £60,000 for the marketing deal.
Once the quads had returned to Weatherfield from Saint Tudno Hospital, Tara contacted Chesney, asking them all to attend a photo shoot. They had no option but to agree to keep to the terms of the contract, even though they were exhausted. Chesney persuaded her to conduct the photo shoot at No.5, even though the house was in a state of chaos. Tara and photographer Olivia arrived and sympathised with Chesney and Gemma's stresses.
At the next photo shoot at a house in Oakhill in the New Year, Chesney and Gemma enjoyed the lavish facilities and crashed out in the green room afterwards, exhausted, while the quads were photographed on their own. The pair overslept, causing Chesney to miss his shift at Prima Doner, infuriating Dev when he saw Chesney, Gemma and the quads arrive home in a Freshco company limousine. Dev accused Chesney of undermining his business by working for the competition and told him to decide where his loyalties lie. Gemma chose Freshco on Chesney's behalf and Chesney was summarily fired from Prima Doner.
Bernie contacted Gazette reporter Suki Waters to give her the scoop that Dev had sacked new father Chesney, though when the kebab shop ran out of supplies, Dev agreed to ask him back as he couldn't cope without him. Dev and Chesney made up, just before Bernie burst into the corner shop with Suki, who started to question him about the sacking. Dev had enough and fired Chesney again.
A few days later, Tara showed Chesney and Gemma selected pictures from the photo shoot and they realised that they'd substituted fake good-looking parents in their place. The couple were hurt by the company's behaviour. With few options left to them, Gemma agreed to sign-off on the photo shoot. When they spotted a bus with their ad on it, they could barely recognise themselves as the photos had been edited to make them more attractive.
The couple considered dropping out of their contract, though Imran Habeeb cautioned Gemma against her actions as they'd signed a watertight contract and Freshco had deep pockets. Gemma refused to drop her fight against Freshco and attempted to prise one of the ad posters out of its case with a chisel. Chesney didn't understand why she'd took it so personally. She admitted to feeling insecure about her appearance since the quads were born. Chesney suggested she concentrated on what she'd gained by having the quads. Gemma was afraid that she wouldn't be good enough for her children, like she wasn't good enough for Freshco.
In February 2020, Chesney and Gemma were concerned about son Aled's hearing, and were invited to attend a consultation. Tara reminded them of a Freshco promotional launch for their campaign, though due to worries for her son, Gemma showed little interest. Tara tried to talk up the promo day and promised them the next instalment of their fees the day after. When the event times clashed with the hearing test, Gemma was determined to attend. The couple summoned Tara to No.5 and asked to rearrange the launch time, though she was totally unsympathetic and threatened to withhold payment if they didn't cooperate with the original plan.
On the day of the launch event, the couple attended Aled's consultation leaving Tara furious. She told Chesney and Gemma that as they were late for hair and make-up, she didn't want them to appear in person with the babies but to wait at one side. At the event, Chesney and Gemma watched Tara, surrounded by the quads, lie that the parents were ill and couldn't attend. They watched the cheesy video of them praising Freshco but Gemma was perturbed when Aled started to cry. Seeing how guilty Gemma felt at selling their children, Chesney stalked to the front of the audience and announced that what they were seeing was "a load of rubbish". As Tara glared at him, Chesney made an impassioned speech about the realities of bringing up quads: how tired they were; how great a mother Gemma was; and, how unsympathetic Tara was to their issues. He called off the event and got a heartfelt round of applause from the audience. Accusing Chesney of trashing the Freshco brand, Tara terminated the contract.
Birth of Glory Bailey[]
In March 2021, Grace Vickers went shopping at Freshco on the day of her gender reveal party. Whilst waiting for Ronnie Bailey to pick her up, she headed back inside the supermarket to use the toilet and was stopped by a security guard who asked to see her receipt as she didn't go near the till. Unable to produce her receipt, Grace was taken through to the security office. The guard locked her inside while he went to fetch a manager. While he was away, Grace started having labour pains. When the security guard returned, Grace was rushed to Weatherfield General where Ed Bailey accused him of racial profiling. Grace and Michael Bailey's daughter, Glory was born prematurely later that day.
Staff[]
Management
- Anne Malone - Area manager
- Curly Watts - Albert Street branch manager
- Aiden O'Donnell - Regional manager
- James Kitching
- Nita Desai
- Anthony - Albert Street branch manager
Sales assistants
- Alma Baldwin - Also temporary manager
- Ken Barlow - Trolley pusher
- Fred Elliott - Butcher's counter
- Ashley Peacock - Butcher's counter
- Wendy Jones
- Izzy Armstrong
- Will
- Sinead Tinker
- Aadi Alahan - Shelf stacker
Security
- Trevor
- Frank O'Connor
- Security Guard
Publicity
- Tara Swift - Marketing manager
- Olivia - Photographer
Other
- Jon Spear - Trolley collector