A PROGRESSIVE FIRM.

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 104, 3 May 1911, Page 8

A PROGRESSIVE FIRM.

MESSES. GREY AND FORD. LTD., NEWTON. The modern equipment and progress of a big and enterprising drapery business demand the essentials of welllighted and spacious premises, and of well-ordered departments .easily distinguished by the purchaser upon entrance. And it was to this end that the young, but flourishing, firm of Grey and Ford, Karangahape-road, recently decided that the time had arrived when it became imperative to make a considerable extension to enable anything like an adequate coping with their quickly-expanding business. Just as Messrs. Grey and Ford were contemplating extension in the rear of their, present shop, opportunity stepped along, and offered them the, acquisition of the adjoining lately occupied by the Imperial Boot Company, and, with true business instinct and enterprise, they seized it by both hands. The result is now to be seen in splendid and commodious premises, housing, in all its infinity, the up-to-date stock of a large and thriving drapery business. The new portion, well lit and airy, will be devoted to the purpose of a lady's showroom of the latest in every particular, from the handsome show-case, which confronts the fair customer upon entering, to the bold, bevelled mirrors, which reflect her as she walks towards the other end. to be fitted, maybe, In the comfortably-appointed fitting-room, which opens into the rear of the department. At night the whole is brilliant under 1,400 candle-power of light, shed from fourteen electric globes, while the well-dressed window is further enhanced by the effulgence from two 300----candle-power lamps under the verandah. From this fine showroom, replete with all the dainty confections in millinery and what-not so dear' to the welldressed modern divinity, the fair customer steps through an archway into the main premises, reorganised, welllighted, and spacious, to choose what she will from the firm's up-to-date stock of drapery in every variety. The shopper, in promenading the building, has her attention at once arrested by the excellent disposition of the departments, the particularly well-lit interior, and the fine floor space, which has been very considerably increased downstairs by the extension. The aim of the firm lias, in short, been to afford its customers the best opportunity for shopping at the least inconvenience, to which end the old showroom upstairs has been converted to the use of storeroom for spare stock, and of the mail order department. Although the firm of Grey and Ford is in its infancy, having been in existence but four years, the mail orders have grown to such an extent that the house now does a large outside business, not only throughout the Dominion, but with such distant places as the Chatham Islands, the Tonjan and Samoan groups, and Penrhyn Island. The rapid growth of this department is the result of no forced trade, for the firm sends out no travellers, but depends entirely on the good name achieved and the satisfaction given to customers. The whole business is, in fact, a live evidence of an honest, live, and progressive policy, and the handsome, dean appearance of reconstructed premises is a symbol of the firm's general methods-. It should be mentioned that the renovations were carried out by Messrs. Lye and Sons, under the direction of Mr. Holman, architect, while the electric installation was in the capable hands of the Electric Construction Company. It is the intention of the firm, having been the successful tenderers for the up-to-date drapery stock in the assigned esiate of Mr. Sarney, to signalise the opening of their new showroom by a colossal sale of this stock, which will be quitted at great eacrifice.