HORDERN’S

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 73, Issue 370, 13 September 1930, Page 13 (Supplement)

HORDERN’S

AN AUSTRALIAN ORGANISATION By CRANLEIGH BARTON, The “Chronicle’s Travelling Representative. r JTIE phenomenal growth of the City of Sydney can be realised when one takes an individual firm and traces its development through the passing of the years. For this purpose I selected the firm of Anthony Hordern aud Sons, Limited, as being “the senior store” (for so it describes itself), and through the courtesy of the management much interesting information has been offered me. Surely over 100 years history in retail trading is unique in any of the overseas Dominions of the Empire! Yet it was in 1823 in a single storied shop, with one small entrance, that the foundations were laid of the present vast enterprise known as Anthony Hordern and Sons Ltd., which possesses a nominal capital of £5,000,000. Mr Anthony Hordern, the father of the founder of the firm, came from well-known banking stoek in Wolverhampton, and did not emigrate to Australia till middle life, and here he started business as a wheelwright. His eldest son, who bore the same name, was the founder of the present firm, and in those early days he conducted a business suited to the simple needs of the pioneer people. Moleskins and crimeans figured prominently in the stock-in-trade, and in those days of irregular and precarious journeys by sailing vessels it took no small feat of management to supply the modest needs of the customers. A three-storied shop was built in 1356 in the Haymarket to satisfy the demands of its then patrons, clad in bustles and pork pie hats. The business still steadily grew and according to an account of the firm written in 1879 the number of employees had risen to 300 (all of whom were boarded on the premises) while the quarterly cash business amounted to some hundred thousand pounds. By the end of the nineties a great department store housed in various buildings was in being. But on July 10, 1901, practically the whole of the Haymarket buildings were swept by a disastrous fire, with the loss of four lives. Yet such was the triumph of organistion that in a few days business was being carried on as usual in an exhibition building rented from the City Council. It was then decided to bring all the selling departments together under one roof, and the then proprietor, Mr Samuel Hordern, moved the business to its present site on Brickfield Hill, and ereeted (by day labour in one year) the immense pile of buildings, possession thereof being taken in 1905.

Mr Samuel Hordern died in 1909, a multi-millionaire, and the business was then transformed into a private limited liability company, with Sir Samuel Hordern, his able son, as governing director. In 1918 Mr Justly Rawlings came from the London office as manager. In 1926 the Hordern Trust decided to sell out their interests to a public company formed with Sir Mark Sheldon, K.8.C., as ehairman, and Mr Justly Rawlings, C.8.E., as general manager and director. The business was reorganised and now takes rank as one of the most up-to-date in the world, with its own buyers sent regularly to Great Britain, the Continent of Europe, and the U.S.A.

The following details will give some idea of the scope of the company s activities. The retail store stands on a site of over three acres, has a street frontage of 962 feet—over 18 acres of floor space, 76 selling departments, 226 telephones, and nearly 3000 employees. Ironworks, porcelain, enamelling works, furniture, bedding and clothing factories are among the varied activities of the business, and more surprising still, it owns the largest marble and slate works in the Commonwealth. Practically all the marble work, which is such a beautiful and prominent feature of many recent handsome additions to Sydney’s architecture, has been carried out by this firm. Its Metropolitan Delivery System is the largest in the Commonwealth, and for the sum of one shilling parcels may be collected anywhere in the metropolitan area and delivered again to the customer’s instructions. To wander through the maze of well-stocked departments is to realise that the establishment compares very favourably with the universal providers of the older countries. Here is a branch of the postal service—there a tourist agency—all serving the company’s customers under one roof. In fact, the proverbial saying that one could buy anything from a needle to a white elephant there would not be far wrong. It frequently happens that when an organisation loses its principle dominant personality that it slips back, and eventually dissolves. This should be a marked feature of Australian institutions because of the optimistic undisciplined nature of the people. Hordern’s development, extending over a century to the wide organisation of to-day, stands as a monument of Australian genius for organisation, and what is more important, the ability to find the right men to carry on the organisation’ and to extend it. These fundamental qualities being present in the case of Hordern’s indicates the presence generally. Hordern’s then provides an index for Australian qualities which have not received the notice that they really deserve.