Firm has proud history

Press, 28 August 1984, Page 29

Firm has proud history

Behind the many products printed by D. N. Adams today stands a proud history of more than 70 years’ service to the people of Christchurch and the South Island. Mr David Noble Adams started a typewriter and general office supplies business in Christchurch in 1907. Four years later the company, D. N. Adams, Ltd, was formed. Mr Adams and Mr A. B. Anderson were the first directors. Mr Adams was appointed manager at a salary of £ 178 per annum, and Mr Anderson became the company secretary and received £ 26 per annum. Mr W. E. Best was the auditor and received a fee of £lO 10s a year. After three years trading, the company expanded by purchasing the stationery and printing business of Joseph Wilson and Co. Mr Adams resigned as manager in 1920, and Mr William De Renzy was appointed. He was to have a strong influence over the prosperity of the firm during the next 28 years. In 1921, a branch office was established in Timaru. The amount of work and reputation of the firm was booming and, by 1923, the premises at 191 Manchester Street had to be extended. The printing department was moved to a building at the rear of the shop. Mr De Renzy resigned for a period owing to ill health in 1924, and Mr A. R. Holder

was appointed manager. During the 19305, the printing department was extended and publication of the “New Zealand Home Journal” commenced in 1934. The “Home Journal” was printed on three Phoenix quad-crown, hand-fed presses which had previously been used by the Christchurch Press Co., Ltd, to print the “Weekly Press.” This association with “The Press” was to become much closer over the years. As the size and circulation of the “Home Journal” increased, a Buhler flat-bed reel machine was installed and, later, a Foster threedeck newspaper press was bought from the “Southland Times.” The sale of office supplies was phased out and the printing department extended to occupy the whole of the ground floor of the Tattersails Lane premises (off Hereford Street). The first floor, previously used by Phil Munns’s indoor bowling rink, was taken over for offices and the typesetting department. “New Zealand from the Air” was a successful publication produced by the company at this time. Other publications printed by the company included “The New Zealand Racing Calendar,” “The New Zealand Trotting Calendar," “The Plainsman,” “Junior Digest,” “The New Zealand Traveller,” and “Home and Country.”

Mr De Renzy retired in 1948, and Mr Les Fulford was appointed manager. Printing of “The Mercantile Gazette” by D. N. Adams commenced in July, 1949. Typesetting of information in the gazette was produced on the battery of linotype machines at “The Press” each evening. In the next few years, the company was to purchase a display linotype and Winkler moulding press from “The Press.” In 1967, the company installed a Cottrell web-offset press and ancillary equipment which increased the capacity to print a wide

range of newspapers and magazines. In 1981, an extra unit was installed to give greater flexibility to meet the growing demand for colour in newspapers and magazines. A Muller automatic stitcher-trimmer provides high-speed feeding, stitching and trimming of magazines, and other publications. In December, 1979, the company was taken over by the Christchurch Press Co., Ltd, and it is now a whollyowned subsidiary. Mr Noel Rogers was appointed general manager on the retirement of Mr Fulford in March, 1983.