MEGAMART Portmore is set to close on June 30, ending 27 years of operation at the retail chain’s first Jamaican store, with Chairman Gassan Azan describing the move as “a very hard decision” that could affect about 200 employees.

The closure will bring an end to operations at the 75,000-square-foot Portmore location, which opened in 1999.

Azan said the Portmore branch had been loss-making for some time and had been subsidised by the company’s Montego Bay operation before that store was devastated by Hurricane Melissa, which struck Jamaica on October 28 last year.