Former View Royal mayor says decision to close involved a combination of factors, including shortage of skilled workers, an expiring lease and worries about street disorder.
On the second floor of a building on Government Street, it’s old-school upholstery and furniture restoration. There are wide tables spread across the open warehouse where fabrics are cut, stands of industrial sewing machines and rolls of felt and foam. Workers carefully stretch fabrics over wooden frames and hammer tacks and use staples to bring new life to dated colours and patterns.
So it was understandable that Screech, 64, started to get a little misty when he revealed Friday that he is closing Greggs Furniture & Upholstery at the end of September. “I didn’t think I’d get choked up,” Screech said in an interview in the ground-floor showroom, adorned with comfortable couches and chairs.
Greggs had a mattress and a furniture factory at one point, but both buildings were destroyed in a fire in 1982. Greggs was started by Gregg Lowe and has been at various locations in Victoria. Screech bought the business from his wife Jean’s uncle, Murray Scott, in 2000. Screech, who spent 20 years as a View Royal councillor and mayor, said the decision to close was due to a combination of factors. He wasn’t willing to sign a new five-year lease on the property at this point in his life. He said attracting skilled workers has been difficult, and crime and street disorder in north downtown “has just been getting out of hand.”
He said although business is good and there’s more than enough work to keep operating, it didn’t make sense to keep going.
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