operations by closing some of its smaller outlets, without the loss of jobs.

Closures include shops at the Princess Hotel, Elbow Beach Hotel, Marriott's Castle Harbour Resort and Crystal Caves.

President Eldon Trimingham said: "Unless a place is big enough, you cannot present what you truly are.'' The retailer closed a Mangrove Bay store, The Perch, a year ago, combining that operation with Triminghams' main Somerset village branch. It had a surprising effect. "Operations with larger floor space seem to do much better,'' Mr. Trimingham said. "In fact, we are doing significantly more business in the combined Somerset store now than we did when we had the two separate stores.'' Meanwhile, the Princess Hotel shop in Pembroke was deemed to be too small to accommodate a representative range of Triminghams' wares.

It was closed at the end of January.

"Unfortunately, we tend to send the wrong message to visitors who see that store before they come into Hamilton,'' he said. "We project an image for our main store of carrying a restricted range of merchandise.

"And if we try to put everything into that outlet, it becomes a jumble. The same problem existed with the store at Elbow Beach, which we closed a few months ago. We closed the Crystal Caves shop for much the same reason.'' The Crystal Caves shop was also closed for long periods in the winter, requiring heavy transfers of inventory between that location and the main Hamilton store.

Mr. Trimingham said the company would maintain stores such as the one at Sonesta Beach Hotel, because they had larger floor space to attractively display merchandise. The Southampton Princess outlet will be improved through renovation.

Already improved and expanded are stores at South Road, Paget and St.

George's. The company also has three shops in the Dockyard, including the perfume shop, Uncommon Scents, the Bermuda Railway Company's Dockyard Station and A Taste of Trimingham's.

Mr. Trimingham said the company is closing the Marriott store now. Reasons for that closure included its poor location.

He said: "It gave an impression of being down in the cellar. It wasn't a good location and it suffered from poor traffic. There was no signing to show that the shops were down there. The circulation around the store was not very good.

"I believe it was Bill Marriott who wanted us to have a shop there and we agreed. But we've been very disappointed with it. We were going to pull out last year and we didn't.'' Mr. Trimingham said: "The Elbow Beach shop was just too small and too cramped to do an effective job. But you still have to man it, send trucks out to stock it and employ a wide range of resources for it.

"And just down the road from the hotel is our Paget store, where every item carried in the hotel shop, and a whole lot more, can be found. And we do get a huge amount of traffic from Elbow Beach.'' Although a lot of staff are involved, Mr. Trimingham said none will have to be laid off.

He said: "The excess staff get rolled into the other operations, because we are not selling any less with these closures. In fact, we are selling more merchandise, by doing a better job in the bigger shops.'' Meanwhile, Grand Central Station, the Bermuda Railway shop on Reid Street is being moved to a new, unidentified location. Lines Overseas Management has applied to the Development Applications Board to redevelop the present site on the corner of Reid and Burnaby Streets.

SALES RISE -- Eldon Trimingham