Total Fitness Center and Prince Deli and Bakery permanently closed its doors yesterday ? abruptly terminating the employment of its 25 staff members.

For months, rumours have been circulating that the gym/deli on Burnaby Street might close down. Management has been looking for new premises following notification that its landlord planned to tear down its current home. As recently as January this year, the company assured this newspaper that the rumours were untrue and it had every intention of continuing in business.

But yesterday Joanne Thain, director of Total Fitness Fitness Center, said that the closure came for a number of different reasons beyond the pending loss of location.

?We were finding the rising cost of running a fitness centre and deli was getting beyond our ability to do,? she said. ?It was getting too high and we were also finding a lot of competition. There are so many other gyms now, every little building has a gym and it is hard to get the volume.?

Ms Thain said another reason for the closure is that her father is in poor health and is ?really not able to deal with it anymore?.

Former UBP MP Dr. Clarence James became the sole owner of the company after he began legal proceedings against his business partner David Dunkley in 2002, claiming that the affairs of the company were not being conducted properly.

Ms Thain estimates that Total Fitness once had about 300 members although the number may have recently dropped to as low as 150. While the board had been thinking of closing for some time, Ms Thain said yesterday seemed like a good time to wrap up as it was month-end.

She said clients were being informed of the shock closure via the media because ?there are so many members we don?t really have proper addresses for them?.

Staff members were only informed yesterday that their jobs had ceased to exits. When asked what would happen to them, Ms Thain simply replied, ?they will find future employment?.

She said that she was not at liberty to comment on whether staff will be provided with severance packages.

The company?s directors are now in the process of appointing a provisional receiver and an official announcement on that issue is expected next week.

The receiver will deal with any membership inquiries with regard to unused gym fees.