Maltesers from local store shelves towards the end of last year. Now the mystery has been solved.

Importer Winter Cookson has been banned from importing the product by its manufacturer, Mars, who say Maltesers melt too easily in transit.

Winter Cookson's chairman Mr. Lou Petty said his firm was doing all it could to reverse the decision of Mars' international division.

"We've been bringing Maltesers here for 40 years,'' he said. "It is one of Bermuda's favourite chocolate products.'' Winter Cookson, which has the exclusive contract for Mars in Bermuda, has to import the product from the UK, which is the only country to manufacture Maltesers. Mars does not market the item in the US.

Winter Cookson brought them here via the Netherlands, where the Maltesers were packaged with other products brought to Bermuda by the company.

"Mars was concerned about Maltesers being sold in Bermuda in anything but first class condition,'' said Mr. Petty. "They are extremely strict about quality,'' said Mr. Petty.

"Maltesers are a very fragile product and Mars was concerned they were too vulnerable to heat while in transit, particularly during summer.'' Winter Cookson is pressing for the decision to be reversed but Mr. Petty did not hold out too much hope, especially since Mars' dreaded hot summer months are just starting.

Local Malteser fans need not be too despondent, though. Hamilton Pharmacy, which imports them from a UK wholesaler, is still selling the product locally.

NINE BEDROOMS FOR $495,000 RE Nine bedrooms for $495,000 A property was advertised for sale last week at a price which, on paper at least, looks like the steal of the century.

Nine bedrooms, eight bathrooms, near Hamilton and an asking price of only $495,000. What's the catch? None, according to real estate agent Jones Waddington.

The firm's president Mr. Arthur Jones said: "The property does need some work done to it but, quite simply, this is a good buy. There's an awful lot of square footage.'' So why so cheap? "The price reflects the age,'' he said. "It's quite an old property that's been modernised at various times. Obviously, the recession has also dented the market, which is pretty depressed at the moment.'' The property, called Talent Villa, is located in Cavendish Heights, off Shelton Road, Pembroke. It used to be a guest house but has since been converted into three residential units.

Mr. Jones said the premises was ideal for another guest house or for a large family.

FBS HAPPY WITH FIRST WEEK BUC FBS happy with first week Investment firm First Bermuda Securities was pleased with its first week of trading local stocks but said it still had a long way to go to create enough interest to make the service profitable.

FBS did five different trades last week in three companies, the Bank of Butterfield, Bermuda Commercial Bank and Belco. The total amount of stock traded came to a modest 810 shares.

"We were fairly encouraged by that,'' said the firm's vice-president Mr.

Jeffrey Conyers. "We had an awful lot of order interest.'' Some companies were more popular than others among investors. Particular with investors were the Bank of Butterfield, Bermuda Commercial Bank and Belco, which all had too many potential buyers and not enough sellers.

Mr. Conyers said FBS had to go out and create a market for daily trading.

"I'm not going to pretend to anyone that it's going to be easy,'' he said.

"But we'll give it our best shot.'',