Fine crystal and china retailer Bluck?s has closed its last remaining branch store and will now only sell its wares out of its green headquarters at 4 Front Street. General manager Peter Darling is optimistic, however, that the downsizing may be reversed in the coming years.

Bluck?s only opened the branch store at 53 Front Street, next to the Pickled Onion, in 1999.

But over its six-year run in this location, the company has seen a downturn in business Islandwide.

?(In the) past three years business has declined so dramatically that we had no choice but to consolidate all of our shops into the main store,? said Mr. Darling.

The sub-lease at 53 Front Street has been signed to A.S. Coopers, which has been snatching up retail space to house its business while it demolishes and rebuilds its current premises into mixed use office and retail space.

Mr. Darling said: ?Our real potential business base has probably dropped 600,000 to 300,000 in the last ten years and so we weren?t doing enough business to justify (the branch store at 53 Front Street). We were very fortunate that Coopers are good friends of ours. The owner of Bluck?s, my dad Michael Darling, is married to a Cooper. They were looking for space and we had four years left on that lease and so, we sub-leased it.

If business turns around in the next four years ? and high end tourist developments such as Newstead, Lantana and Tucker?s Point Hotel come online ? Mr. Darling hopes Bluck?s will be able to reopen the branch store and grow again.

In the meantime, the company has absorbed every staff member but one into the main store.

?You certainly get first class service in the main building because we are tripping over each other but that is what we?re known for,? he said, adding that every employee has given Bluck?s between 10 and 35 years of service.

The 53 Front Street location has not been the only closure in the last six years. Bluck?s also closed branch stores on Reid Street as well as in St. George?s, Dockyard, and at the Southampton Princess and Sonesta Beach hotels.

?Basically, in the last six years, we have closed a store a year,? Mr. Darling said. ?As business declined, we closed a branch store because our particular product was declining quicker than clothing and perfume and leather goods.

?It is just the nature of the beast. People eat out more, don?t entertain as much at home. There are social changes too in the way people live that have affected our business, but we have done very well with the really good stuff.

?The really expensive stuff has been selling this year but you need the meat and potatoes. You need the $20-$40 sales every day, all day long to maintain a company. You can?t just rely on a $3,000 vase selling every day because it might sell once every two weeks but that is not going pay the bills.?

Mr. Darling said that the opening of high end resorts is a must if his business is to turnaround as these are the same customers who would frequent Bluck?s.

?I do see a turnaround, but again in a small, slow, steady growth,? he said. ?I?m not expecting a miracle tomorrow, but I?m very optimistic because we had a good Christmas in the main store.?

Strong sales on the company?s new website and high-end improvements at stores owned by fellow retailers are also fuelling his optimism, said Mr. Darling. But increasingly high rent and taxes remain concerns.

?The increased burden of taxes has not helped and they better not go up this year otherwise there are going to be a few more nails banging into coffins around Front Street,? Mr. Darling said. ?We really just have to be lean and mean as a country, be a little bit more frugal. We save everything at Bluck?s. We recycle all the packing material, all the boxes. Staff have their own coffee mugs which they clean at the end of the day.

?They don?t use paper and chuck it into the trash and if Government could be a little more frugal there would be less reason to increase taxes.?