A BOOTS employee of almost 56 years was ‘honoured’ to open the firm’s new store in Handforth Dean last week.

June Curbishley, 71, has worked in the pharmacy and photography departments at her hometown branch in Knutsford since leaving school aged 15.

And before reaching her 56-year milestone with the company on Monday, April 10, she was given the responsibility of cutting the ribbon at the new Handforth Dean store on Wednesday, March 22.

“It’s been my only job, and I still enjoy it,” June told the Guardian.

“Everybody’s so friendly. We’ve had lots of staff, and all the girls that are there now are like a family. We’ve all been there a long time.

“I’ll carry on working – I don’t think there is a retiring date these days, just when you feel like it. I keep saying it every day but you don’t do it.

“I enjoy coming to work and meeting people. The staff in Knutsford are great, as are the customers.”

June now works part-time at the store in King Street, serving customers two days a week.

She was invited to open the branch by Linda Wilson, store manager at Boots Handforth Dean, after the pair had previously worked together for a number of years.

She added: “I was very honoured to open the new store – it was good fun.

“Linda’s been my manager a couple of times now and it was a real honour for her to ask me to open it.”

Boots has replaced the former BHS unit in Handforth Dean, which closed after the department store chain went bust last summer.

The 1,100 sq ft store has created 50 new jobs, and Linda believes that June is the perfect example to her new recruits.

“It was great to have June open the store, I’ve worked with her a few times,” she said.

“Colleagues are at the heart of everything we do so when we discussed who we would like to open the store, having worked with June and known how customer-focused she is, I think it was a great example for the team.

“I think to have June come and represent what Boots stands for in loyalty and looking after customers, there was no better person to open it.

“We’ve had some lovely comments from customers saying how happy they are for us to be here. We’re really looking forward to being part of the community.”