Bears Repeating, the second hand store for childrens' clothing, toys, furniture and equipment, has been rescued from the brink of closure by new owners.

The mother-daughter team of Adrienne Defilla and Dawn Zuill re-opened Bears Repeating Too in its new location in the old Creative Interiors building on Front Street last month.

Speaking at the new store, Mrs. Zuill said her original interest was merely as a customer of Bears Repeating.

She was sorry to read in the paper that after initial problems finding premises, the previous owners had decided to close down.

"It adds so much to the community that we certainly didn't want to see it close."

Mrs. Zuill says she found out that premises which she had previously considered for her other business, Bermuda Executive Services Ltd, was still available. She hit upon the idea of taking the shop on with her mother.

With a new baby son, Liam, now aged seven months, Mrs. Zuill knew that she would not be able to work at the store herself, so it was vital to enlist her mother to run the business on a daily basis.

Between them, they have supervised refitting the premises and restocked the shop using the previously existing system of taking consignments of second-hand goods from account holders.

They have added a credit card machine and introduced a permanent "Sale" section for garments that have not sold quickly.

The new owners say that would like to see a faster turn around of stock, particularly in the toy section which they are keeping fairly small.

The fastest moving stock tends to be the strollers. This week there is a selection of twenty strollers, but they are constantly being sold and replaced.

The store only accepts goods which are in an immaculate condition and most of it appears "nearly new".

Mrs. Zuill said she donates anything that is not in acceptable condition to charities such as the Barn but if something like a car seat is missing a strap, she has to throw it away.

"It is up to individuals to check items before they drop them off as we just don't have the time to ring people and ask them to come collect stuff that is not acceptable," she explains.

However to reflect the increased rent at the new premises, they have had to change the revenue sharing ratio. Bears Repeating Too now gets 60 percent of the purchase price and the account holder gets 40 percent.

The new shop is already full to the brim with stock. "We have been inundated" says Mrs. Zuill, adding that so much stock has come in that they have not yet been able to sort through all of the consignments.

At the moment they are doing a brisk trade, with a lot of people coming in to find Christmas outfits and things like snowsuits. What's more, Mrs. Zuill says that it helps that there seems to be a baby boom going on in Bermuda: referring to a number of her friends, she says: "Everybody's pregnant!"