A decade of slumping sales and family heartbreak has weighed heavily on the owner of a Digby County hardware store, who's now preparing to return his family's 149-year-old business to its woodworking roots.

But first, owner Dan Robichaud must convince residents of Meteghan, N.S., that the brand name of U.J. Robichaud isn't disappearing from their community for good.

"I get a lot a lot of long, sad faces walking in the door saying, 'Oh it's closing, it's closing.' But in reality, when we look at the history of the company, I mean, it's gone through some major, major changes," Robichaud said.

For five generations, Robichaud's business has centred around lumber and building supplies, in different capacities.

Dating back to the 1860s, the company operated a saw mill for 70 years. Before and after the First World War, the company manufactured caskets and operated a gristmill. As a hardware store, U.J. Robichaud TIM-BR Mart has grown over the last 40 years to stock $2 million worth of inventory.

Dan Robichaud has decided the company is ready to shed its skin once more. At the end of April, its hardware store will close.

"I'm going to simplify life. It's a very holistic approach."

The hardware store has a century-old woodworking shop on site. Right now, it's not used very much. But owner Dan Robichaud has plans to change that. (Dan Robichaud/Facebook)

Working through family loss

Since 1990, a steady drop in local home building cut deeply into profits. But the last five years have been the hardest, he says.

Robichaud's brother Marc — who planned to keep expanding the hardware store — died 26 days after a cancer diagnosis in 2012. Six weeks later, the company's senior estimator, who contributed 30 per cent to their bottom line, passed away suddenly. Camille Robichaud, Dan's father, had a heart attack in January.

Robichaud, a former Radio-Canada employee, moved from Halifax back to Meteghan to take over the business. He realized then the company had grown too big, which led to the closure of the store's Church Point location last year.

"The income has not been there for the last 15 to 20 years, despite a million-dollar expansion in the last five years," Robichaud told CBC News.

"To me, I just see so much more potential in the assets that we're sort of ignoring — which is the woodworking shop."

'Turn the key and everything starts'

By the summer or fall, U.J. Robichaud TIM-BR Mart will put its "absolutely unique, Edwardian-era" woodworking shop front and centre.

The on-site shop was installed in 1906, is entirely belt-driven and runs off a diesel motor.

"I can go there, turn the key and everything starts," Robichaud said. "It's one of the last remaining workshops of that size, of that era, preserved in such a good condition."

The woodworking shop will become the focus of the new business as $2 million worth of inventory is sold off before the fall. (Dan Robichaud/Facebook)

Robichaud is excited to shift gears from stocked shelves to lumber reclamation — a simpler business model that's more secure, he says.

"It's not hard to make a living just transforming wood. It gets very challenging when you're financing you know, seven-digit inventories."

Reception from some customers has been frosty, Robichaud says. But he doesn't intend to stray from his plans, even if the future he's carving is not what his brother Marc had planned.

"He'd probably say, 'Good luck!'" Robichaud laughed. "The closing of this business has been happening for over three years. It does take that long."