by Nancy Gardiner
Northern News Services

NNSL (Feb 21/97) - Golden Harvest Bakery is no more.

"It was a hard decision. We should have made the decision years ago," said Fred Leonardis, former owner-operator of the bakery.

The North's only commercial bakery closed up shop Jan. 31. Four full-time and some part-time staff lost their jobs at the Yellowknife-based bakery.

"We were losing money for the last four years," Leonardis said, who blamed the closure on the failure of the bakery to attract business from the retail market.

Most large grocery stores have their own in-store bakeries.

Golden Harvest was supplying the majority of commercial establishments, said Leonardis. That amounted to anywhere between 20 and 50 commercial customers at a given time. It served Yellowknife, Cambridge Bay and Norman Wells, as well as mining camps.

Still, "we needed two or three times the volume (to stay in business)," he added.

The bakery ran for five years, since Leonardis bought it on Feb. 1, 1992. He's now trying to rent space where the bakery was housed.

Leonardis and his three brothers still own and run other local businesses, including JSL Mechanical contracting, JSL Maintenance and service and YK Plumbing and Heating.