South Island-based retailer Smith's City is moving forward with its second great expansion into the North Island, with the opening of a new store in Upper Hutt today.
The 2196 sq m store on Upper Hutt's Queen Street is the second to be recently opened in
South Island-based retailer Smith’s City is moving forward with its second great expansion into the North Island, with the opening of a new store in Upper Hutt today.
The 2196 sq m store on Upper Hutt’s Queen Street is the second to be recently opened in the Wellington region, following the establishment of a Porirua outlet in December.
The Porirua store opening was the company’s first in the Wellington area since the early 1990s.
The retailer was forced into receivership in 1991 after its last big foray into the North Island collapsed when the purchase of the 50-store Smith & Brown chain was completed within days of the 1987 sharemarket crash.
After over-extending its reach, the company took years to trade its way out of receivership.
Last month, managing director Rick Hellings told NBR the retailer was mindful of its past failure, but was now taking far slower steps in its latest northern expansion.
The Wellington retail scene is now the main focus of the retailer, with both new stores in the area taking advantage of the storage, delivery and installation structure already in place for the LV Martin & Son retail chain, also owned by Smiths City.
With that infrastructure in place, the company can make a relatively low cost entry into the Wellington region.
It is still on the look out for a central Wellington location and said today it would seek further retail opportunities in the lower North Island to increase its coverage in the region.
