IT'S taking some time to get our heads around it.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
That's what Beck's Bakery owners Peter and Carmel Neubeck said on Friday as they prepared to shut the doors on their CBD store for the last time.
Their long tenancy in a prominent spot on George Street has ended abruptly due to what they describe as "circumstances beyond our control" and they won't be moving the bakery to a new location in the CBD.
"A lot of people have wanted us to move elsewhere, but it's just a bit too difficult at this stage of our life to re-start," Mrs Neubeck said.
While the CBD bakery closed on Friday afternoon, their Westpoint bakery will remain open until the end of July, when it is set to get new owners.
The Neubecks said the redevelopment at Westpoint and Bathurst Regional Council's work on the roundabout on the corner of George and Howick streets, which closed that intersection for almost three months, had affected their trade and contributed to their decision to start a new chapter in their lives.
During the work on the roundabout, they said they lost 60 to 110 customers a day at the George Street store.
READ ALSO:
Beck's Bakery has been in George Street for more than 10 years and at Westpoint for 22 years and the Neubecks said they had been blessed during that time to have "fantastic staff".
"The staff have been fantastic right to the end," Mr Neubeck said. "They have probably worked harder in the last week [in preparing to close the George Street bakery] than they have had to in 10 years with us.
"Right to the last day, no one has let us down."
They say they didn't plan this swift ending for their time in business, but are grateful for what the two bakeries have given them over many years.
"We have never been so gutted in our life as when we had to sit down and tell the staff," Mr Neubeck said.
"But then we gradually got our head around the fact we [he and his wife] might have a life together."
And what does that life hold in the immediate future?
"Our daughter's getting married in August, we're having a holiday and we have Elton John tickets. Life's made for us," Mr Neubeck said.
"That's our future lined up."
