CESSATION OF BUSINESS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 86, 13 April 1931, Page 5

CESSATION OF BUSINESS.

CHRISTCHURCH FIRMS. MANY WORKERS AFFECTED. (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) CHRISTCHURCH, Sunday. A decision to close business has been reached by two firms in Christchurch, Butterworth Bros., one of the oldest wholesale drapery businesses in New Zealand, and Economic, Limited, retail drapers. Butterworths are giving up business throughout New Zealand as a matter of policy rather than of necessity. The firm has its headquarters in Dunedin, branches in Invercargill and Christchurch and agencies in other towns. Over 200 employees will be thrown out of work. Butterworths began business in 1864, and a resolution that the company will voluntarily wind up will be placed before an extraordinary meeting of shareholders next Wednesday. The firm is largely a South Island one and did most of its business in the North Island through travellers' sample rooms, of which there was one in Auckland. Mr. S. Hollander, principal of Economic, Limited, states that his firm is closing owing chiefly to the difficulties of the London buyers. These buyers formerly relied on the Australian trade for the bulk of their business. Now, having lost the Australian business, they cannot survive on New Zealand business alone. Other factors, said Mr. Hollander, have been the high exchange rates and increased tariffs, which have made the position of the importer difficult.