Quiet, consistent growth

Press, 13 April 1989, Page 27

Quiet, consistent growth

The new retail outlet for the McVicar Timber Group was developed mainly because the company saw a classic gap in the market in the northwest. The meticulous research and canny site selection that went into the process are both hallmarks of the McVicar Group. The company began in the 1940 s in two separate

locations independent of each other. The late Neil McVicar purchased Selwyn Casewoods in Papanui while at the same time his eldest son began timber cartage contracting on the West Coast. Ten years later McVicar senior had added a small retail outlet at the Cranford Street site while Neil McVicar junior and his brother Colin had

started a sawmill on the West Coast. Inevitably these strands of development began to jell together and now the McVicar Timber Group is probably the largest priv-ately-owned timber and building supplies company in New Zealand. The company owns a total of 1600 hectares of forest in Canterbury and Marlborough.

They have two large and extremely “hightech” sawmills in Christchurch and Blenheim. There are retail outlets throughout Canterbury and even a timberyard in Sydney. According to the advertising ' and marketing manager for the group, Jane Clark, the key to this success story is simple — an emphasis on quality of product and service.