Vast expansion of company since merger of family businesses

Press, 24 June 1981, Page 16

Vast expansion of company since merger of family businesses

The company of Wilson Neill, Ltd. came into existence in 1963, as a result of the merger of two Dunedin family businesses. After 100 years of trading as private, separate family businesses. R. Wilson and Co., Ltd. and Neill and Co., Ltd. became a public company. acting as general merchants. The two family businesses were established in Dunedin in 1862. Robert Wilson emigrated from Ireland to Australia in 1852. Hard times forced him I to seek his fortune elsewhere and ho came to Dunedin and founded the company of R. Wilson and Co., operating as general merchants. His company prospered through the supply of provisions to the Otago goldfields. ’ Robert .Wilson helped found many of the country’s leading companies including the Bank of Otago, the Colonial Bank of New Zealand, the National Insurance Company, the New Zealand Re-

I • frigerating ■ Company, the Benhar Pottery Works and the Kaitangata* Coal Mines. Percival Clay Neill, also of Irish descent, emigrated to Australia and then, in 1862, moved to Dunedin and, like Robert Wilson, set up a family business, trading as general merchants. His company also enjoyed the prosperity of the goldrush years in Otago. ■ Since the merger, the company has developed export markets and expanded from dealing in groceries, to home appliances and liquor outlets. In Otago, since the mid70s, Wilson Neill has been a recognised name in the liquor price-war. It now operates more than 20 liquor outlets in the South island. It established a home ap-' pliance division, made up of' a number of companies, initially in Otago. Gradually, it expanded this division as well to control stores from Christchurch to Invercargill. In May, 1981, the various

trading companies finally came under the one name. Wilson Neill Appliances..