construction boom in the last fiscal year.

The company, which owns the Bermuda Paint Company saw sales fall six percent or $173,000 to $2.7 million from $2.9 m illion in 2000, according to year end figures released yesterday.

The company blamed the closure of hotels and guest cottages for the fall in demand for paint on the Island.

"With the closure of major hotels and guest cottages, sales have been impacted with the loss of sales to those accounts and delayed scheduled maintenance programmes at a number of accounts has also tended to reduce demand for our products during the year.'' Net income, before discontinued operations, was down by $62,000 or 13.5 percent to $295,709.

Taking the discontinued operations into account net income fell $161,897 or 35 percent for the year ended March 31, 2000.

The company blamed the fall in profit due to the fact they had stopped selling paint for cars and bikes due to `changing market conditions'.

Last year the company saw profits fall by 11.2 percent, with net income dropping from $515,184 in 1988 to $457,606 in 1999.

Net revenue from operation in the year ended March 31, 2000, before the discontinued car paint section is taken into account, fell from $354,228 to $286,135.

Earnings per share also dropped this year by 35 percent from $1.0 to 68 cents.

Book value per share has fallen $7.54 to $7.21. No shares were traded on the Bermuda Stock Exchange yesterday.

A statement from the company said: "Due to changing market conditions, the directors of the company have made a decision to discontinue the development of the automotive paint products line.

"A total of $100,000 of prepaid costs comprising mainly of licensing fees and materials associated with the automotive business have been written off.

"This charge has reduced the profit for the year ending March 31, 2000 by a similar amount to $296,000, a reduction of $162,000 or 35 percent from the prior year's results.''