Bermuda retailer A.S. Cooper & Sons opened its sixth and and largest branch store yesterday ? A.S. Cooper Harbourside.

The new waterfront location at Pier Six gives Cooper?s 6,000 square feet of retail space to house women?s clothing, perfume and accessories. The move to this location follows the company?s decision to redevelop the site of its flagship department store on Front Street.

While A.S. Cooper chief Peter Cooper, pictured below, told he had mixed feelings about moving out of the old store ? which is currently under demolition to make room for a new building that will be a part retail, part commercial venture ? he was happy to have a new space that was bright and efficiently laid out.

The new space seems expansive at just under 6,000 square feet but Mr. Cooper said space was much tighter now having downsized from about 10,000 square feet on the third floor of the A.S. Cooper flagship store, which housed the women?s department.

High-end designer wear for women is now being carried at another Front Street location previously called Cooper?s Cachet and now renamed A.S. Cooper Studio.

In the month since A.S. Cooper?s shut the doors to its main store, Mr. Cooper said the group had opened four branch stores around Hamilton.

?This was not a simple exercise, I can tell you,? he said, having just unveiled the new Church Street location for home goods (A.S. Cooper Home) a week ago.

While the Harbourside store caters to women shoppers, the A.S. Cooper Man shop at the west end of Front Street has been opened for a number of years for male shoppers.

Junior fashions and accessories can now be found at A.S. Cooper Express at the entrance to Washington Mall on Reid Street, and fine jewellery and gifts have been moved to a fourth Front Street shop, adjacent to the Pickled Onion restaurant.

A.S. Cooper & Sons continues to look for a seventh space to house its children?s department.