Page 57 - HW March 2022

1992 was also all about the Cricket World Cup, coloured strips and white balls.
THIRTY YEARS AGO, in March 1992, New Zealand’s population was just over 3.5 million, and had been inching slowly upwards at roughly 1% a year.
Today, our population is over 5 million, a number that had been widely touted back then (and since) as representing a “critical mass” that would enable the country to invest properly in things like infrastructure...
Thirty years ago, National controlled almost three quarters of the seats in Parliament and we were watching the tobacco- sponsored 1992 Cricket World Cup at venues around held in Australia and New Zealand.
It was the first time the players had worn brightly coloured clothing and swung at (whisper it) white cricket balls.
All that seems normal now (except for the tobacco sponsorship), but really wasn’t at all back then...
Pakistan beat England in the final by the way, but the Player of the Series was our own Martin Crowe.
BIG NAMES FROM MARCH 1992
NZ Hardware Journal’s March 1992 edition also featured a range of sporting personalities, with such heroes still key to big supplier promotions within the magazine.
While 1991 saw Gary Whetton adding his name and mana
to Lockwood Locks’ promotion, Alex “Grizz” Wyllie was to be found in our March 1992 issue extolling the virtues of Hurricane Wire Products.
Hurricane’s slogan back then was “Built to last” – a good fit we thought at the time – and indeed, as recently as this year Grizz has been back on TV helping Wet & Forget as frontman to some of their TVCs.
Back in early 1992, the Commerce Commission was looking long and hard at paint.
Indeed, the consumer watchdog was to be found warning paint retailers not to breach proper trade practices for fear of incurring the wrath of the Fair Trading Act with misleading price claims on their 10-litre pails...
Today, as we know, the Commerce Commission is still casting its watchful eye upon competition within building products and the hardware channel...
Thirty years ago, we visited Birkenhead Hammer Hardware – the Editor’s local hardware store – which was run by Richard and Lynette May, who’d just kicked the business into the 90s with bigger new premises in a far better possy, adjacent to Highbury Shopping Centre.
All things must change however and the prime site that was Birkenhead Hammer Hardware has until recently been home to a well-known pizza brand.
UP AND DOWNS IN MARCH 2012
Moving on 20 years now, by March 2012, the New Zealand population had clawed its way up to some 4.5 million, although annual growth had again slowed.
Home improvement was both up and down, what with Paymark’s January 2012 Retail Home Decorating & Hardware spending figures showing the hardware channel experienced better spending than the market overall.
In contrast, for the 12 months to December 2011, consents were issued for a paltry 13,662 new dwellings, 12% down on the previous year and the lowest December-year total in the 46-year history of the Stats NZ series.
Compare this to last year (2021) when almost 49,000 residential consents were issued, promising record levels of new homes that builders are sadly currently struggling to build.
Still, in 2012’s recovering market, Fletcher Building’s results for the half year to end December 2011 weren’t pretty, showing reduced top and bottom lines, with PlaceMakers suffering a 40% drop to its earnings, no less.
However, although expecting conditions in New Zealand to remain challenging for the balance of the 2012 financial year, with two new TVCs being aired in March 2012, PlaceMakers was keen to show it was far from stuck in in a rut.
With the new campaign, PlaceMakers said it was “putting a
then as now
Then as now
– March 1992 & 2012
PlaceMakers’ 2012 TVC campaign was designed to show it was “not a big box retailer with coffee shops and potted colour.”
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MARCH 2022 | NZHJ 55