Bull to be put in china shop

Press, 4 June 1988, Page 4

Bull to be put in china shop

PA Palmerston North Putting a bull in his china shop is something Mr Grant Burnett says he has wanted to do for years. The managing director’s dream will come true on June 16 when a 1100 kg Hereford bull is inched through the door of his shop and allowed to take over. Every twitch of the $6OOO bull will be watched with bated breath. If it bolts, Mr Burnett risks saying goodbye to $BO,OOO worth of china. If the bull flicks its tail about $lO,OOO worth is likely to end up on the floor. The bull would not be drugged or penned, and only a nose ring and its owner, a Woodville farmer, Mr Bill Bly, will stand between it and disaster.

Mr Burnett said, “Hopefully some idiot in

the crowd won’t try and stir things up. We can’t really do much about that but try and police the thing as best we can. The idea came from the constant barrage of bull-in-a-china-shop comments made by customers. At least twice a day people would wander in and say: “You wouldn’t want a bull in here...” “I thought one day I’m going to do just that. I’d like to have a photo I could pull out and show them: Yes, I have,” Mr Burnett said. An insurance company has agreed to cover the cost of broken china for a “fairly hefty” undisclosed premium. But if the animal decides to bolt through the front window and stomp on a few cars going out, that is Mr Burnett's problem.