Invermere’s Fields store will be closing sometime this year, as its parent company shutters the chain in favour of its higher-end franchises.

In a statement the Hudson’s Bay Company, which owns the Fields chain, said it plans to close all of the chain’s 167 stores by this coming fall.

In Ontario, that province’s 26 stores were set to shut down at the end of February.

“This is a strategic decision by Hudson’s Bay Company to focus on growing our other banners: The Bay, Lord & Taylor and Home Outfitters,” said Hudson’s Bay spokeswoman Tiffany Bourre.

Bourre says the company hasn’t set an exact closing date for its other stores yet, but will wind them down in phases.

The closure, which will affect at least five staff people locally, comes less than a year after the Invermere Fields store was renovated and re-branded as a “Field$ Dollar Depot.”

In April of 2011 the store held a grand reopening after several weeks of renovations meant to make the local Fields easier to navigate and more pleasant to shop at.

Only six stores in the country were upgraded to the new Dollar Depot model.

At the time, local store manager Max Ostroff told The Echo the Fields’ chain felt that the Invermere store “was doing enough business to warrant the renovation.”

The closures announcement come less than a month after the Hudson’s Bay company completed its acquisition of U.S. department store company Lord & Taylor, described by the company as “an upscale specialty retailer.”