business of Office Equipment, a subsidiary of Purvis Ltd.

Moves are being made to close down Office Equipment's retail site on Reid Street, in Hamilton.

In a separate move, Purvis is negotiating to sell the office machines part of Office Equipment -- the division which handles photocopying and facsimile systems -- to Busycomm Ltd.

Busycomm is run partly by Office Equipment's former general manager Mr. Derek Brashier.

The leading contender to take over Office Equipment's retail site is shoe firm W. J. Boyle and Son.

Purvis, which holds the lease on the Masters-owned Walkway complex, in Reid Street, for another 13 years, has already held talks with the company.

It is understood that Boyle's intends to open an up market shoe store at the location.

Negotiations with both Busycomm and Boyle's have reached an advanced stage but nothing has been finalised, said Purvis president Mr. Michael Fahy.

Both measures are a further sign that the Purvis board has a policy to effectively liquidate the company.

Mr. Fahy said: "The opportunities for shareholders to maximise their investment are being looked at.

"If this includes selling segments of the group then these have to be considered to be opportunities.

"Once we sold the food group, which was by far the largest entity, it certainly created the opportunity to look at the remaining operations and to see what the best way was to handle them.'' He said it was inaccurate to say that the once-mighty Purvis group was being dismantled, despite all evidence to the contrary.

Since Purvis reported a record loss of $2.8 million for fiscal 1991, its workforce has more than halved and several parts of the group have been sold.

Earlier this year, the group's core business, wholesaler Purvis Ltd., was sold to Mr. Ward Young and the office furniture part of Office Equipment was sold to furniture Flair.

"It's a matter of us being approached,'' said Mr. Fahy.

"Various people in related businesses have come to us at various times to see what our plans are and to see what opportunities are available to them.'' If the planned cutbacks go-ahead, the only remaining part of Office Equipment left will be its computer side, which handles UniSys products.

No talks are being held to sell this part of the company, said Mr. Fahy.

The only other company Purvis still owns is Communications Systems (Bermuda).