NEW BUILDING FOR STAMP BUSINESS

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32143, 12 November 1969, Page 24

NEW BUILDING FOR STAMP BUSINESS

A man who began a stamp business 17 yean ago, working from a suitcase, will today open new prem? ises more than 5000 sq. ft in area. He is Mr L. J. G. Franks, managing director of Laurie Franks, Ltd, who has built up a flourishing business In recent years, and has export soles of $20,000 a year. Mr Franks’s new premises, at 161 Durham Street, previously occupied by Zip Wholesalers, Ltd, will be the biggest devoted to stamps in New Zealand.

Much of the building will be taken up by a comparatively new printing company where Mr Franks prints bis own albums, catalogues, and stationery, as well as making binges and other stampcollecting requirements. He Intends to manufacture ' a hinge which he has developed himself for mounting firstday covers. Mr Franks ran the business from a spare room in bis parents’ home for some time before moving to a shop at 567 Barbadoes Street in 1958. By 1967, the flrm had annexed three adjacent shops and he made the present move because of pressure on space. Asked how many stamps he bad in his warehouse, Mr Franks showed a number t>f cardboard boxes which contained two million 1960 3c New Zealand stamps. He conservatively estimated his stock to be about 10 million. Mr Franks's special interest is his collection of Chinese stamps. He has 54 albums, containing, besides stamps, letters posted in China dating back to 1818 before stamps had been introduced there. He has just purchased by auction in London a letter ssit from Canton to a Bombay address in 1853, which had-a postmark but no stamp. I The building will be opened this morning by the Postmaster-General (Mr Scott) at a gathering which will include stamp dealers, collectors, and representatives of stamp societies.