A BUSINESSMAN who has helped shape the future of Trowbridge is to retire in March. Brian Fitchett, who will be 63 at retirement, will be stepping down after more that 40 years as a commercial property agent.

Initially as a partner running the commercial property division of Halletts estate agents in Bath, and subsequently trading as Brian Fitchett Commercial, Mr Fitchett was involved in negotiations for the development of many of the town's major business schemes.

These include the acquisition of all the land for The Shires shopping centre; the Bryer Ash Business Park next to the railway station; the Meridian Motor Park on the edge of the White Horse Business Park at Bradley Road, and more recently the County Gate office development in County Way.

When Brian Fitchett Commercial celebrated its tenth anniversary in 1998, it had disposed of one million square feet of industrial space in the Trowbridge area alone - an impressive 100,000 square feet a year.

A Londoner, Mr Fitchett moved to Bristol in 1970, and on to Trowbridge in 1975, opening the Trowbridge office of Halletts in Wicker Hill. In 1988 Brian Fitchett Commercial set up in Fore Street, and four years later the business moved to its present location in Park Road.

Mr Fitchett's firm has helped many large and small businesses to become established, relocate or expand into their present-day successful operations, whether this be in retail, office or industrial space, and the office continues to manage a large portfolio of properties that it has dealt with over many years.

In 2005 Mr Fitchett merged his business with property consultants Dreweatt Neate, who have recently been appointed by Modus Developments as letting agents for the 40,000 square feet of offices in the £90m Waterside scheme, and for the new Doric Business Centre at Canal Road.

The merged business has expanded. From its Trowbridge office Dreweatt Neate provides a commercial property service covering west and north Wiltshire, Kennet and Frome and also provides a consultancy service.

Colin Scragg, who has worked alongside Mr Fitchett since he started his firm, will continue to run the Trowbridge office of Dreweatt Neate.

Of his partnership with Mr Fitchett, Mr Scragg said: "I started working with Brian as a graduate, became qualified, and then his business partner. You can't choose your family but you can choose who you work with, and after more than 20 years working together we must have got something right.

"I know the staff find it has been a pleasure being part of a business that has been so important to him, and we are all very sorry to see him leave but wish him a long and happy retirement."

A Fellow of The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, Mr Fitchett, who lives in Bratton, is a former president of Trowbridge Chamber of Commerce and a founder member of the Wessex Association of Chambers of Commerce.

He said: "I will be retiring with mixed feelings, but I know the business is in safe hands and I will now be able to indulge in all those pastimes I seldom seem to have had time for before."