With an aim to focus more on those sites that are more promising and show more potential, Michael Hill International has decided to shut down the remaining 14 stores in the United States. This has also come up due to the callous trade environment prevalent in the nation.

As the Company takes this action, it’ll be left with nine stores in the country, most of them confining to the area of greater Chicago. In 2008, this jeweler had obtained 17 stores from Whitehall Jewelers, the Company that had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Michael Hill had purchased this chain at 20% less than its original cost price, at the rate of $7 million. At the time of purchasing the seven stores, the Company had said that it never really anticipated the stores to give any gains for some years in the future.

With three stores based a little south and around St Louis, the rest of the shut down stores were located around the area of greater Chicago. The Company said had said, “It views this as a strategic acquisition to test its retail model in the highly competitive US market, albeit at a time when the economy is challenging”.

The shutdown of eight stores would approximately be of the worth US$1.8 million.