The Bread Basket has turned off its ovens for the last time.

The bakery has been at Bettendorf’s Cumberland Square for 13 years, and expanded about a year ago.  That's when owner Ron Burke says sales started falling.  "We expanded at exactly the wrong time."

Burke took on extra debt to move into a bigger space two doors down.  But almost as soon as they started baking in the new building, sales started dropping by almost 40%.  “We could have handled either one,” Burke says.  “We could have handled the 40% drop or we could have handled the increase in overhead, but we couldn't handle both."

At its busiest, the bakery was turning out about 2,000 loaves of gourmet bread a day.  More recently, that was down to about 500.  Burke says the lower sales didn't have to do with the location or his product.  "Our bread was very, very good and was relatively expensive; one of the most expensive breads on the shelf.  So when the recession hit, people started cutting back and trying to save a little money and one of the ways you can save is to spend a little less money on bread."

Burke has weathered recessions before, but this one was different.  "When it started going down, I figured it'd be back in the spring. It didn't come back in spring, didn't come back in summer and hasn't come back yet and we just couldn't stay with it any longer."

Burke and his two sons tried everything: selling bread in other cities, selling at farmer's markets, but in the end - it wasn't enough.  He says closing wasn't a hard decision, he had no other choice, but it was a huge disappointment.  "We were extremely heartbroken and I can't tell you how many nights of sleep I lost."

Burke put his house up as collateral when he expanded the business and now has to move out of the home he's lived in for 20 years.  But he's still looking at the up side of all this.  He's looking forward to finally having some time off and being with his family.