Saint-Germain Bakery, open since 1977, will be shutting down its four neighborhood locations by the end of August due to “the persistence of a tough economy” and a downturn in business, it has announced.

The artisanal bread company, which also offered French pastries, cakes, pies, cookies and sandwiches, acquired Dee Lite Bakery in 1990 and incorporated its popular guava chiffon and rainbow cakes into its product line. Dee Lite merged with Saint-Germain America, Inc. in 1994.

Saint-Germain has four retail bakery locations (Beretania, Dillingham, Kahala and Waipahu stores), the latter two within Times Supermarkets, according to a June 7 announcement on its website stghi.com. Saint-Germain opened its first bakery inside Shirokiya at Ala Moana Shopping Center, using French and Japanese style breads, but it has since closed.

It originally started as a Tokyu Foods in-store bakery in Japan in 1970.

Management could not be reached for comment.