After decades in operation, one of Barbados’ best known retailers, Dacosta Mannings, closed a major outlet in Fontabelle, St Michael, yesterday. The closure resulted in a number of workers being made redundant.
The complex was once the leading Manning Wilkinson & Challenor store selling lumber and other building supplies.
Bare shelves as a result of the prolonged closing-down sale, as well as employees’ sad faces spoke volumes of the mood in the store.
The managers declined comment; so too did the staff. After October 1995 when DaCosta Ltd. merged with Manning Wilkinson & Challenor to form Dacosta Mannings Inc. and then in 2000, when that company merged with Modern Living, the business as we know it came into being.
The country manager of parent company Neal & Massy (Barbados), Frere Delmas, said in an earlier statement that the closure and staff adjustments were necessary as the group moved to strengthen the operations of its retail line.
Neal & Massy plans to create a single retail operation by integrating the two businesses on a phased basis over the next few years.
Here, a security guard closing the gates of the Fontabelle business for the last time. (Picture by Shaka Mayers.)
