New force in South Island retailing

Press, 4 June 1984, Page 26

New force in South Island retailing

The Farmers Trading Company has been represented in Christchurch since 1970 when the company took over the Calder Mackay chain of retail stores. It was not until 1982, however, that Farmers became a substantial force in South Island retailing. The company acquired the lease of 13 of the Farmers-Haywrights stores, plus the service centre and distribution centre, bringing to an end 13 years of change for the Christchurch-based department store chain. Originally owned by the Hay family, of which the present Mayor of Christchurch, Sir Hamish Hay, is a member, the long-estab-lished firm was merged with the Wright Stevenson National Group in 1969. The stores were renamed Haywrights in 1972. The New Zealand Farmers Co-operative Association of Canterbury had long been established in Canterbury, Nelson and Marlborough, where it traded under the name Farmers, and in 1980 this company took over the Haywrights stores, renaming most of them Farmers-Hay-wrights. With the acquisition of the chain in 1982 by the Farmers Trading Company, the name has been changed again to simply Farmers, or the initials F.T.C. The 13 South Island stores acquired by Farmers from the Farmers-Haywrights group, in addition to the existing F.T.C. (Calder Mackay) stores already owned, gave the company an opportunity for national representation on a large scale. There are Farmers shops in 10 different towns

and cities from Invercargill to Nelson. A corporate philosophy very similar to that of the Hays group means that community service and customer care continue to play key parts in the day-to-day business of Farmers. Traditions that go back generations, such as the Santa Parade and the children’s holiday programmes, will always have a place in Farmers’ calendar. In the two years since the expansion took place, Farmers’ main job in the South Island has been to consolidate its interests here and to integrate the 13 new stores into the existing system. A programme of modernisation has helped to bring the South Island stores into line with the latest trends in retailing and a wider range of products has been introduced, including budgetpriced clothing, hardware and building supplies. The Farmers Trading Company, in keeping with its policy of quality and value, offers a range of exclusive brands of merchandise at considerable savings to customers. The size of the Farmers group allows it the advantages of bulk buying at discount prices and the savings can be passed on to consumers, without the drop in standards of quality or personal service that are often associated with discount shops. As well as exclusive lines in everything from electric blankets to spa pools, Farmers has its own label — Wyndham — that is used to designate good-quality, budget-priced family clothing and manchester across a wide variety of products. Named after the street in Auckland that fronts the main Farmers store, the Wyndham brand was introduced about 17 years ago and now attracts sales that run into literally millions of items a year.