A FAMILIAR face welcomed shoppers to the latest addition to the Brewery Square shopping scene.

Manager Claire Robertson opened the doors to Gerry Weber fashion store in the Dorchester development.

She will be overseeing the continental fashion retailer's operations in the county town as she makes a welcome return to retail.

Claire said she expected the store, which employs five people, to fit in well in Brewery Square and Dorchester.

She said: “We have a good demographic for this type of shop in Dorchester and we have had a lot of people coming up and asking about it.

“A lot of customers have been saying to bring something like Gerry Weber to Dorchester is really exciting, especially bringing it into Brewery Square.”

Claire shot to fame as she opened Wellworths, later renamed Wellchester, in Dorchester's former Woolworths store.

The former Woolworths Saturday girl's venture caught the public's attention as DJ Chris Evans came to open the new store and the story of Wellworths featured on a BBC One documentary.

After three years at the helm, Claire left Wellchester shortly before it closed in June last year to launch her own consultancy business and also spent time at the Ship Inn pub in High West Street.

Claire said she had always had a passion for fashion and was glad to be back in a retail environment.

She said: “It's my passion and having been out of it for just over a year I wanted to get back into it and fancied a different challenge.”

Claire said she was also looking forward to working in Brewery Square and was full of praise for what the development had done for the town.

She said: “It's brought some life into this end of the town throughout the day from first thing in the morning to late at night.”

Andrew Wadsworth, director of Waterhouse, which is developing Brewery Square in partnership with Resolution Property, welcomed the arrival of Claire and Gerry Weber.

He said: “It's another fabulous day for us with a terrific retailer opening.

“What is interesting about Gerry Weber is they have got 815 stores throughout continental Europe but until now they only had 20 stores in the UK.

“So to choose Dorchester for their 21st store we feel is a tremendous coup for the scheme.”