The Timeline: H&J Smith's 123-year journey
From 1900 to 2023, the growth of a remarkable Invercargill-based business.
1900 - H&J Smith was established by brother and sister John Smith and Helen Hay Smith in 1900 as a drapery store in Invercargill. The original H&J Smith store was located at 125 Dee Street in Invercargill, this store was expanded in size in 1905.
1905 – H&J Smith opened their second store in Gore, with the original store being in the Criterion Hotel building on the Main Street of Gore.
1910 – H&J Smith Invercargill was relocated to 48 Tay Street. The second Invercargill store was expanded in size in 1917.
1911 – H&J Smith opened a branch store in the Southland town of Riverton located at the corner of Napier and Palmerston Street. The Riverton store closed in 1919.
1913 – H&J Smith Gore store was relocated to the corner of Main Street and Irk Street.[Extensions were made to the Gore store in 1931. In the early years the upstairs portion of the store housed the Women’s club and a dental surgery. H&J Smith Gore operated at this location for 107 years until 2020.
1922 - H&J Smith purchased the Price & Bulleid building located at 66 Tay Street with the Invercargill store relocated to this location. When the new store opened the ground floor covered half an acre and the number of employees had grown to 131. This store was extended in size over the following decades with the store eventually spanning from Tay to Esk Street. H&J Smith Invercargill has remained in this location.
1940 – A clock tower was erected at the corner of Tay and Kelvin Streets of the Invercargill store. The original clock tower had multiple analogue clocks facing Kelvin Street, Tay Street and the street corner.
1954 - Queens Elizabeth II visited Gore and dined at the Women's club located in the H&J Smith building.
1958 – Invercargill store extended to Esk Street with the completion of a 3-storey building on the corner of Kelvin and Esk street. The Esk Street extension allowed the main isle of the store to run from Tay Street to Esk Street.
1967 – Purchase of Thomson & Beattie with Arthur Barnett Ltd. T&B had been operating a drapery store for almost 100 years and had stores in Bluff, Gore, Tay Street Invercargill and Windsor Street in Invercargill. The Bluff and Gore Thomson & Beattie stores were closed, Windsor rebranded as H&J Smith and the Tay Street Invercargill store later used for Outdoor World.
1969 – Frontage of the Invercargill store remodelled replacing the various facades used across the buildings to a single façade. The analogue clock at the Tay and Kelvin Street end was replaced with a digital time and temperature clock and a second clock tower at the corner of Esk and Kelvin Street was built.
1970 - Viking Room restaurant opened in the H & J Smith Gore store located at the rear of the first floor.
1971 – H&J Smith purchased Queenstown Drapery store WH Wheatley, located on Ballarat Street in Queenstown. The store was rebranded as H & J Smith the same year. Purchases of adjoining properties allowed the company to expand the store in size.
1972 – Sports store H&J’s Outdoor World opened in the former Thompson & Beattie store located at 25 Tay Street in Invercargill.
1974 - H&J Smith purchased W Mackay & Sons Ltd in Nelson. The store was rebranded as H&J Smith Nelson the same year creating a presence for H&J Smith in the Nelson region and later leading to branch stores being created in the Nelson region.
1975 – Purchase of Columbia Products which later became H&J’s Carpet World.
A multi-storey car park building is built on Esk Street across the road from the H&J Smith Invercargill store.
1980 – Purchase of Marguerite Leatherware and Hide Shop Ltd, The Hide Shop sold tourist merchandise with the original store located in Colombo Street in Christchurch. Hide Shop stores were opened as stores within H&J Smith stores during the 1980s.
1983 – A skybridge between the Esk Street car park building and the H&J Smith Invercargill store is opened.
1984 – Video Station franchise stores opened inside H&J Smith Invercargill, Gore and Nelson stores. Video Station was a video rental store. These stores were closed in 1990 with the retail space in Invercargill converted into a jeans store.
1985 - H&J Smith Finance Ltd is established to provide finance for customers making purchases on Hire Purchase.
1987 – Purchase of Ace Stores in Te Anau, the store was remodelled and rebranded as H&J Smith Te Anau. The remodelled store included a time and temperature clock similar to the clock on the Invercargill store.
Purchase of Miss Nelson store which was located on Bridge Street next to the H&J Smith Nelson store and a branch store in Richmond. H&J Smith Nelson store was extended into the Miss Nelson store and the Richmond store became a H&J Smith Richmond branch store.
1989 - H&J Smiths purchased the building on Esk Street next to the department store, at the time this location was most recently used by the Invercargill Licensing Trust as a liquor store, and before this it was home to Watts & Greive Ltd, a Morris car dealer.
1992 – H&J Smith Stoke store is opened in the Nelson region.
1993 - London Bookshops franchise opens inside H & J Smith Invercargill store, becomes Books and More in 1998. Gun City franchise opened inside Outdoor World store.
1996 – H&J Smith Nelson store is rebuilt. The rebuild took place in stages allowing H&J Smith to continue to trade in the same location while construction took place.
1999 - H&J Smith Gore store refurbished, Viking Room Restaurant replaced with The Junction Café and relocated to the front of the store on the First floor. Main entrance relocated to the corner of Main Street and Irk Street. Books and More franchise added to the Gore store including NZ Post Services.
2000 - H&J Smith celebrates the centennial of the company.
Construction of 3 new stores at Remarkables Park in Frankton, Queenstown. The stores included a Big Scotties furniture store, Element (Outdoor store) and a new location for Queenstown Mitre 10.
Following the closure of the Hallensteins store in Gore, H&J Smith takes over the lease of the store and the Gore store is extended into the former Hallensteins store with the space used as the Menswear department.
2001 – Purchase of Arthur Barnett Balclutha store, rebranded as H & J Smith Balclutha.
2002 – H&J Smith Blenheim store opens.
2005 – H & J Smith Windsor Street store is closed.
2006 - H&J Smiths exits the Nelson region with the Motueka, Richmond and Stoke stores closed in 2005. The Nelson and Blenheim stores were closed in 2006.
H & J Smith Queenstown store is relocated to the Remarkables Park centre.
H&J's Appliance Centre is opened in the former Mitre 10 store on Esk Street, closed in 2011.
2009 - An espresso bar, Mooch Cafe is opened next to the Tay Street entrance of the Invercargill department store.
2011 - The Invercargill Paper Plus franchise, which H&J Smith had purchased in 2010, was incorporated into the main Invercargill store, replacing a Take Note franchise. Postal services were removed at this time, however, in 2019 postal services were reinstated after the Invercargill Post Shop closed down.
2015 - Purchase of Arthur Barnett Dunedin store, rebranded as H & J Smith Dunedin.
2020 - All H&J Smith stores were required to close during the Level 4 Covid-19 lockdown.
On 25 May 2020, it was reported that H&J Smith was considering closing its stores in Dunedin, Mosgiel, Balclutha, and Te Anau as well as the Armoury Store in Dunedin and Outdoor World in Queenstown as a result of the economic effects of Covid. H&J Smith would maintain a presence in Gore but downsize the store.
2021 - H&J Smith Dunedin and Armoury Fashion Boutique in Dunedin are closed.
H & J Smith Mosgiel is taken over by Longbeach Holdings Ltd trading as APT Collections.
2023 - In May H&J Smith announced that they proposed to close all of their remaining department stores (Invercargill, Gore, Queenstown) by November citing a decline in the department store model and the cost of renovating and strengthening the Invercargill flagship. The other stores owned by the group (Mitre 10 Mega Queenstown, Mitre 10 Mega Invercargill and Laser Electrical) would not close.
On June 26, 2023, the decision was finalised to shut down the department stores on 18 November 2023.
It was announced in July 2023 that the store in Gore would be taken over by Long Beach Holdings Ltd. and rebranded to APT Collections. They previously took over the store in Mosgiel. The Armoury Fashion Boutique would be taken over by Tania Roderique and the Gun City store taken over by the parent company.