Smiths City

In 1918, Henry Cooper Smith established City Market on Colombo Street in Christchurch. The business initially auctioned grain, livestock and general goods, but later began to specialise in new and used furniture and hardware.[1] The business eventually became Smith's City Market, or Smiths City.[2]

The flagship Colombo Street store was still operating more than 100 years later, in 2020.[3]

Smiths City opened its first store outside Christchurch, in Filleul Street, Dunedin, in 1977.[4] By March 2020, it had 29 stores.[2]

Smiths City was placed into a trading halt on 27 March 2020, two days into New Zealand's COVID-19 lockdown, after it was initially denied permission to operate as an essential business.[5] It held talks with its primary lender ASB Bank,[6] and the bank agreed to delay a debt repayment.[7] However, the company's share price plunged when the trading halt ended on the following trading day, 30 March.[8]

The company's Blenheim store, the largest tenant of Marlborough District Council, was given a rent discount during the lockdown.[1] Within the first week of the lockdown, the company was also given permission to sell essential goods online.[9]

In May 2020, Smiths City undertook a major restructure due to the ongoing impact of the virus.[10] The board voted to go into receivership to fast-track a potential sale without time-consuming shareholder approval.[11] It laid off 115 workers, about a quarter of its national workforce.[12] It also closed seven of its 29 stores.[2]

The chain's remaining stores were sold to new owners later the same month.[13] The sale took place over Zoom, without the buyer being able to visit any physical stores.[14]

The new owners closed Smiths City's operations in Auckland, where it had struggled against Australian rival chains like Harvey Norman and Freedom Furniture.[15]

In July 2020, Smiths opened a new flagship store at The Colombo Shopping Centre in Sydenham.[16] The original flagship store, on nearby Colombo Street, remained open.[14]

In August 2020, Smiths moved its Dunedin store from Andersons Bay Road in South Dunedin, where it had been for 14 years, to the Meridian Mall in the city's CBD, where Kmart had moved out after 23 years.[17]

By October 2020, the company had returned to profit,[14] had recruited more staff,[13] and had plans to open another five stores.[14]