The 108-year-old Smiths City retailing name lives on as an online enterprise with new owners keen to open bricks and mortar stores in the future. Smiths City 2026 Ltd owner-operators and co-directors Ric Sheehan and Michael Bell have just gone live with a retailing website since buying the brand out of liquidation. Previous owners went into voluntary administration last September before entering liquidation the next month, owing more than $25 million. The new partners, who have ties in retailing and technology, relaunched the business with an initial focus on homeware, office products and technology. Mr Sheehan said they were two Kiwi mates in a self-funded venture who wanted to bring a great brand back to life. Smiths City was an iconic retail business which everybody had known for more than a century and this was a major pull for them, he said. “We saw an opportunity in the market for a couple of Kiwi entrepreneurs to make a real dent in the retail footprint. We are not coming from any corporate backing. It’s literally a couple of dads with mum and dad money and we thought we could build something here that will make the family proud.’’ The business was bought for just over $100,000 in January from a BDO Christchurch team acting as liquidators. Mr Bell is a silent investor with Mr Sheehan operating the business from warehouses and an office he owns with another company. The brand, intellectual property and customer base came with the purchase price. However, they were unable to buy any of the closed stores or rehire staff let go by the time their bid had been accepted. Mr Sheehan said working from a clean slate had its advantages. “To be fair to the previous owners, when they bought the business it came with all the stores and the debt that came with it whereas we get a fresh slate. We haven’t got all the legacy hurdles that they had to jump over to get the business running. We will start much smaller and then build it back slowly with a firm foundation.’’ OTAGO DAILY TIMESSmiths City new owners Ric Sheehan and Michael Bell have relaunched the iconic retailing business with the first online sales after South Island stores were closed in a voluntary liquidation last year. Photo: Stephen Jaquiery Originally established in Christchurch in 1918, the company had operated nine stores mainly in the South Island with a focus on furniture, electronics and appliances. Smiths City’s flagship store on Colombo St was demolished last April. Mr Sheehan said they were grateful some of the staff had helped them by providing advice on suppliers and systems. They were virtually rebuilding the supply chain from scratch as the supplier list had not included product details. “There are not too many people going from full liquidation to an owner operator business within a year, but we can say the website is about 30% complete with products we already need so we have a long way to go and this is not the finished product, but good progress is being made.’’ After testing the website about a month ago, it officially opened for business last week, with about 30 new products being added daily. Advertising only began this week in a build-up to Father’s Day. Mr Sheehan said the customer response had shown them there was strong loyalty to the brand with initial sales steadily building and awareness coming back. He said some suppliers burned previously by the liquidation were talking to them and needed to be shown the rebuild had a strong foundation. New suppliers including Apple in the technology category with its lines of mobiles, laptops and tablets would give them some assurances, he said. “We are refining the range and definitely putting more modern pieces in, but we are also not trying to run away from what made it successful. The people who were loyal to the brand will still be looked after in the products they like.’’ Mr Sheehan said he and Mr Bell were lifelong friends who had known each other since their schooldays and played football together growing up, representing New Zealand at junior level. The pair continue playing masters football for the Bazza Juniors at Northern Rovers. Mr Sheehan also runs Data Erasure, a wholesale company specialising in secure data destruction and the disposal of IT assets for Australasian businesses. The company resells retired or trade-in laptops and other technology after wiping sensitive business data, rather than sending them to landfill. He said Smiths City’s 10 employees operated at this stage in Data Erasure’s headquarters. The focus was on building the online model and re-establishing the supply chain this year, he said. Once this succeeded, an office returning to the south, and potentially two stores, were planned as they wanted Smiths City to be a South Island focused brand. “Before committing to locations or format, we want to talk directly to customers first, to understand what people loved most about Smiths City the first time round, and build the comeback around that.’’ The relaunch was being carried out without outside investment apart from business loans, he said. “I don’t know if we will 100% bootstrap it all the way but we will try. When you get to bricks and mortar that’s a completely different money challenge so that is a conversation when we start going into stores.’’
