Eric Firman Eric Firman was the owner of frozen food chain Firman ' s Freezers , and a cash and carry in Salford . In January 1994 , Eric served as best man at Reg Holdsworth and Maureen Naylor ' s wedding . He was a curious choice as he and Reg were almost strangers ; a fellow member of WARTS , Eric was Reg ' s wholesaler for his new business venture , the Corner Shop . For Reg , the wedding was a business launch and Eric was his guest of honour . Eric attended the wedding but he was one of many to cry off from Reg ' s stag night . Six months later , Eric took Reg on as manager of the Weatherfield branch of Firman ' s Freezers , and in early 1995 he was persuaded by Reg to employ Curly Watts as assistant manager , a position he had served under Reg at Bettabuy . At Firman ' s , they were never far from Eric ' s gaze and he often shared his business plans with them , most of which concerned his early retirement . In March 1995 , he was in talks to sell the chain to Brad Martin but after a bad interview with Reg and Curly they pulled out suddenly , to Eric ' s irritation . Later that year , Eric put his nephew Leo Firman in charge of the store , taking a more backseat role . Leo earned the ire of Reg and Curly for being appointed over them and enjoyed lording it over them , informing Reg that he ' d sent a damning report about him to Eric . Fearing the sack , Reg refused to follow up complaints from the female staff that Leo had been harassing them , so it fell to Curly to tell Eric . Fortunately , Eric believed Curly and Leo was sacked . Despite his seeming antipathy for Reg , Eric thought highly of him professionally and in November 1995 he offered him a promotion to Chief Executive for Distribution in Lowestoft . Reg accepted and Eric appointed Curly the new manager , impressed with him and Raquel when he and wife Edith entertained the pair at the Firman residence . Eric also invited Curly to join the Square Dealers . In December 1996 , Eric accepted Curly ' s resignation and made arrangements to re - employ Reg as manager , with Anne Malone as assistant manager , but Curly returned at the last minute and was kept on in his current position . Anne was in love with Curly but he spurned her advances and her reaction was to try to ruin his career by complaining to Eric that he ' d been sexually harassing her , resulting in Eric suspending him . Curly didn ' t understand Anne ' s hatred of him and tried to get her to admit the truth but when Eric saw Curly shaking Anne , he fired him . Anne then tried to frame Curly ' s lodger Samantha Failsworth for shoplifting but assistant Sheila Dixon told Eric she saw Anne plant a package in Sam ' s bag . Eric realised Curly had been telling the truth all along and reinstated him , after sacking Anne . In July 1997 , Eric became taken with shop worker Alma Baldwin and made her employee of the month , putting a blown up photograph of her on the wall ( without her prior knowledge ) . Appointing a reluctant Alma as the face of Firman ' s Freezers , Eric used her poster to advertise their poorest selling stock , which succeeded in boosting sales . Early the next year , Eric stood against Spider Nugent , who objected to Firman ' s stocking Norwegian prawns on the grounds that it supported whaling . When Spider spoiled the prawns with antifreeze , the insurance company refused to pay out . In August 1998 , Eric sold Firman ' s to Freshco s and retired . List of appearances . 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998