Total Home Ltd. has gone into liquidation after 18 years in business with all of its stock being put up for sale, The Royal Gazette can reveal.

The Official Receiver and Provisional Liquidator has taken possession of the home furnishing company's remaining inventory and will be selling everything from kitchen cabinets, countertops and major appliances to bathroom and plumbing fixtures, flooring, furnishings, lighting and ceiling fans at significant discounts.

Total Home's part owner Bob Greig, who is helping with the sale, said that the store applied to go into liquidation at the end of July due to a lack of business over the past two years, citing the recession as one of the main reasons behind it.

"There was no business at all," he said.

"We hadn't sold a kitchen in a year and with everybody shopping overseas it was not easy to keep going.

"Also some people didn't pay their bills either, which didn't help."

Mr. Greig said that the business had gone from a peak of employing 24 staff down to six, making gradual cut backs to reduce costs over the past two years. All six lost their jobs when the company officially closed.

A number of Bermuda companies have been hit hard by the economic downturn over the past year, including HomeZone, which shut in April, with 14 employees impacted by the closure, and Bermuda Telephone Company announcing it was looking to trim its staff base by about 25 employees — or more than 12 percent — in a bid to reduce costs and restructure its business earlier this year. Last week fund administrator Butterfield Fulcrum axed 10 staff from its Bermuda office following a review of the distribution of work at its operational centres.

The store, which has become something of a Bermuda institution during its time in business, was based at its current location for six years and further down Reid Street for 12 years.

Anyone interested can view the items for sale at Total Home at 81 Reid Street East between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. The sale, which started last week, runs until the end of September.

For more information, call 296-1366.