For 150 years, the Nichol's brand has been synonymous with the South as business reporter Sally Rae reports.
Nichol's is a story of adapting.
From the days of horse and coach and whaling, fertiliser to flowers, seed to stock food, and now a host of other enterprises, it is diversity that has seen the business remain thriving as it celebrates its sesquicentennial.
''If they had stayed whaling, it wouldn't be much good,'' Nichol's managing director Allan Dippie quips.
Today's operation encompasses a variety of enterprises in Otago and Southland, including garden and hardware retailing, landscaping, contracting, construction, manufacturing, hospitality, real estate and property development.
It's a far cry from the days when the business was founded in 1865 by Samuel Nichol and its first role was as agent for Cobb and Co's Bluff to Invercargill coaches, carrying passengers and mail in the pre-railway days.
It later operated the Bluff to Invercargill railway line.
Samuel was joined in the business by his brother George in 1874 and they expanded into wool and grain storage.
One of the first staff was office boy Joseph George Ward, who was to go on to be Prime Minister of New Zealand in 1906-12 and again from 1928 to 1930.
The Nichol brothers operated two whaling ships but when whaling ended they put one of the ships to work as a coal hulk, importing coal from Newcastle, Australia.
Operations were expanded in the grain and wool trade and as general merchants.
George Nichol was a founding director of the Southland Frozen Meat Company which eventually operated the Makarewa and Mataura freezing works.
When Ernest Nichol, third generation in the family business, took control in 1946, he was to have a major influence on its future fortunes.
The company expanded into stock and poultry foods in Invercargill and opened a Dunedin branch in 1948.
In 1954, a department store opened in Bluff, with hardware, timber, grocery and drapery departments.
It was the company's first foray into retail activities and it was to eventually become one of the founding Mitre 10 stores in New Zealand.
A century of trading was celebrated at a special function in Invercargill in 1965, around the same time Nichol's expanded into garden fertilisers.
That same year, Neville Dippie was approached by Ernest Nichol to move from his job at National Mortgage to manage Nichol's Dunedin operations.
A disastrous fire in 1969 destroyed the stock food factory in Bachop St and a new factory was opened in Timaru St in 1973.
But while the stock food business was very busy in winter, trade was not nearly as good in summer and spring.
Neville Dippie asked Ernest Nichol about the possibility of setting up a garden centre, with the aim of helping to remove the peaks and troughs of business.
Nichol's Garden Market opened in 1976, next to the stock food and garden fertiliser factory.
It was a major departure from the usual garden shop scene, which were usually shops on a town's main street.
There was no such thing as ''drive-through'' garden centres, let alone being open seven days.
The only other businesses open seven days in Dunedin were service stations and dairies, Allan Dippie said.
Neville's sons, Allan and Martin, started working in the factory after school, packaging fertiliser and bagging wood chips for the garden centre.
Allan Dippie remembered Ernest Nichol, then managing director, as a ''great old gentleman''.
In 1984, Neville and Gaynor Dippie bought Nichol's Garden Market from the Nichol family and Allan Dippie, having graduated from Lincoln University, joined the business the following year and formed Nichol's Landscaping.
Martin joined his brother in the business in 1988, starting with an initial staff of three.
The brothers ''really got the business wound up'', including establishing Knox Row in George St.
It turned out the business was not quite big enough for the two of them so, when an opportunity arose for Martin to buy three Mitre 10 stores, in Mosgiel and Dunedin, he took it and branched out on his own in the hardware industry.
Meanwhile, Nichol's kept expanding, buying Young's Garden Centre in Invercargill, adding a landscaping branch in Wanaka and becoming involved in an increasingly diverse range of business and development activities.
In 2009, a purpose-built complex was opened in Cromwell, with a garden centre, landscape supplies and cafe.
Despite opening around the same time as the global financial crisis, it was going ''very very well'', Nichol's general manager Rhys Gibbs said.
Last year, the Dunedin garden centre underwent a major renovation and expansion, with the main part of the store moved into the former Nichol's stock food and fertiliser factory.
A cafe was added, along with Nichol's Pet Warehouse.
With such a long history, including just two family owners, Allan Dippie acknowledged feeling ''some responsibility to keep the thing going''.
He believed the history was important and something that people in Otago and Southland appreciated.
The company itself remained staunchly loyal to the two regions, including very strong links into Central Otago.
The Nichol's name itself had become synonymous with gardening and the Dippie family had never seen a need to change the name.
''We could have at some point, [but] it would have been a really silly thing,'' Mr Dippie said.
The secret to success was providing a reliable service and also providing a service that someone wanted. Businesses had to keep changing and adapting, Mr Dippie said.
''If you're in business selling a service people no longer want or need, you're in big trouble. You've got to adapt, which the Nichol family was extremely good at doing, and change, or die,'' he said.
While it was a very diverse operation now, gardening was still a great business to be involved in as there was always something happening.
Moving back into the Dunedin building, which had previously been sold and then bought back by Nichol's, was a bit like ''coming home'', Mr Gibbs said, while it was a good reuse of the old stock food factory, Mr Dippie added.
When he and Martin first started in business, there were 13 garden centres in Dunedin.
Now there were very few, although there were gardening departments in big-box stores.
Nichol's had become very vertically integrated with its landscaping, starting at the beginning from building sections and houses, to doing the landscaping and supplying a lot of the materials.
All aspects of the company's business were doing well at the moment, and he believed the regional economy was in good shape.
Nichol's prided itself on providing good service, with many long-serving staff, and quality plants.
In 2004, it moved into plant production when it bought Evandale Gardens, a large Southland nursery established in 1930.
That enabled it to have control over what it was growing and security of stock, while also selling plants throughout the South Island to big-box stores and garden centres, and supplying a ''huge'' amount of stock to Nichol's garden centres.
The next big step was providing more online shopping, although Mr Dippie said people still liked to ''come in and touch and feel'' and enjoy the garden centre experience.
''The one thing you can't do online is you can't get a coffee,'' he said.
When it came to current trends, Mr Gibbs said it was still ''very much edible''; anything that people could plant and harvest and also control what went on their food.
There was a resurgence in fruit trees and berry fruit and people also tended to want almost instant colour in their garden.
Punnets of vegetables were Nichol's number one seller, both in volume and dollar value.
Gardening was something that was often handed down from one generation to the next but, for a while after Mr Dippie joined the business, that did not seem to happen so much - gardening was not quite so trendy - and the knowledge was not being passed on.
That had really changed and people were seeking information. Nichol's had about 22,000 people on its database to whom it sent information.
Nichol's also offered a garden consultancy service, providing suggestions for people's gardens, for which there was a high demand.
One thing that had not changed was that people still liked having a nice-looking property, Mr Dippie said.
''In New Zealand, your house or your home is still your number one asset. Gardens are right up there with that,'' he said.
But people were keen for lower-maintenance gardens than in the past, and there was much more a ''do it for me'' market, including a trend of homeowners not mowing their own lawns.
''People don't do things like they used to themselves.''
Mr Dippie, who splits his time between Dunedin and Wanaka, said there were still plenty of challenges and plenty of changes ahead for the business.
A function to mark 150 years of trading will be held at the Nichol's Dunedin Garden Centre on November 28.
Past and present staff, as well as suppliers, are invited.
Milestones
1865 - Samuel Nichol founds the company.
1874 - Expands into wool and grain storage and Samuel's brother George joins the business.
1890 - Expands operations in grain and wool trade and as general merchants.
1917 - Fire destroys Nichol Bros grain stores in Bluff.
1924 - Samuel Nichol dies and a second generation, Ernest and his two sisters, continue to control the business.
1946 - Ernest Nichol, son of Ernest, takes control of the business. Expands in Invercargill into stock and poultry foods.
1948 - Dunedin branch of Nichol's opens.
1951 - First South Island production of sheep nuts achieved.
1954 - E. S. Nichol opens new department store in Bluff.
1960 - Expands into machinery with the New Zealand agency for the Alvan Blanch grain drier.
1965 - Celebrates century of trading. Expands into garden fertilisers and automates stock food factories in Dunedin and Invercargill. Neville Dippie begins work managing the Dunedin operations.
1969 - Fire destroys Dunedin stock food factory in Bachop St.
1973 - Nichol's moves to Timaru St, Dunedin.
1976 - Nichol's ventures into gardening.
1984 - Neville and Gaynor Dippie purchase Nichol's Garden Market.
1985 - Allan Dippie joins the business and Nichol's Landscaping is formed.
1988 - Martin Dippie joins Allan in the business.
1991 - Fire destroys Nichol's main factory in Invercargill.
1993 - Martin buys Jac's Mitre 10 and branches out on his own. Willowridge Developments is formed in Wanaka and the company subdivision projects begin.
1995 - Nichol's buys Young's Garden Centre in Invercargill.
1996 - Landscaping branch in Wanaka added.
1998 - Nichol's buys Precision Paving and starts manufacturing paving and concrete products.
2000 - Wanaka-based contracting and civil construction company Central Machine Hire Ltd is added.
2004 - Nichol's buys Evandale Gardens in Invercargill.
2009 - Opens purpose-built complex in Cromwell.
2014 - Major renovation and expansion of Dunedin garden centre; cafe and Pet Warehouse added.
2015 - Celebrates 150 years' trading.
