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The leather shop that created the well-known advertising slogan “It’s worth driving to Acton” is closing its doors.

The (Olde) Hide House, a huge warehouse in Halton Hills stocked with a huge range of leather goods, from coats and gloves to shoes and bags to home furnishings, will start its final liquidation sale on Friday 1 November.

The family-owned store first opened in 1980 and capitalized on Acton’s history as a leather manufacturing hub, becoming known as Canada’s Leathertown.

The catchy slogan and advertising campaign raised the store’s profile. At its peak, there were more than 300,000 visitors annually, helping the town of about 10,000 located 45 minutes outside of Toronto become a tourist destination.

Acton was founded in the mid-19th century by the Adams brothers, Rufus, Zenas and Ezra Adams. By 1856 it was home to one of the largest tanneries in the British Empire, and the business was the main driver of the local economy.

At the turn of the century, the current warehouse was built next to the railway as a storehouse, a house for the rails. And although the tannery business itself was long gone by the time the store opened, Olde Hide House helped it live on.

The store is expected to close completely by the end of January and they are no longer taking any kind of custom or customization requests due to the short time window.

According to Danbury Global Ltd. & AD Hennick & Associates Inc., the firms that will execute the closing, there is more than $5 million in stock to liquidate.

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