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List of Coronation Street characters introduced in 1994

Eric Firman, portrayed by Malcolm Terris, was the owner of ''Firman's Freezers'' who appeared on a recurring basis between 1994 and 1998. He first appeared as the best man at Reg Holdsworth's (Ken Morley) wedding to Maureen Naylor (Sherrie Hewson) in January 1994. This was mainly as part of a business launch and Eric was the guest of honour, although they knew each other through ''WARTS'', they barely knew each other. In 1995, Eric encouraged Reg, who was manager of the ''Weatherfield'' branch of ''Firman's'', to take on Curly Watts (Kevin Kennedy) as the assistant manager after working with him at ''Bettabuys''. Later that year, he employed his nephew, Leo Firman (John Elmes) as the store manager, but later sacked him after Curly reported him for sexually harassing Anne Malone (Eve Steele) and Raquel Wolstenhulme (Sarah Lancashire), the latter he also attempted to rape and subsequently confided in him. In 1996, he accepted Curly's resignation and re-employed Reg as store manager and promoted Anne to assistant store manager.

In 1997, Eric took a liking to new shop worker, Alma Baldwin (Amanda Barrie) and made her employee of the month as well as putting up blown up photos of her around the shop, without her prior knowledge. After appointing her reluctantly as the face of ''Firman's Freezers'', Eric used her poster to advertise their poorest selling stock, which succeeded in boosting sales. In 1998, Eric stood up against Spider Nugent (Martin Hancock), who objected to the sales of his Norwegian prawns on the grounds that it supported whaling. The insurance company refused to pay out after Spider sprayed the prawns with antifreeze. In August 1998, Eric sold ''Firman's Freezers'' to ''Freschco''. Provided by Wikipedia