AFTER a successful first day of business, bosses at Southampton computer game shop Game Ex-change were looking forward to managing a thriving store.

But their hopes was shattered when burglars broke into the Portswood Road shop and stole £20,000-worth of stock.

Luckily, the games, memory cards and machines that were taken were covered by insurance but the store lost nearly a week's trade after closing down while the stolen items were replaced and clearing up was carried out.

Chain managing director Peter Rouse said: "We put the stock in on the Friday night, opened Saturday, closed, and by the Monday they had come in through the roof, through the toilet and had taken all the stock away.

"We had a good response on the Saturday - we had a queue of people outside the door to start with.

"We were giving away PlayStation 2 games to early customers, but we ended up giving away more than we thought."

Staff had been working for three months to get the store ready for opening, and are now spending an extra week clearing up after the burglary.

Mr Rouse said: "It's a bit sickening. The retail value of the items stolen is about £20,000. It was PlayStation 2, X-Box and Game Cube games and they stole machines and memory cards and things, and money that was left from the day's trade. They've taken tiles off the roof and smashed the ceiling, smashed the toilet door to get into the shop and smashed the cabinets in the shop."

Game Exchange will re-open at 10am on Friday.