Page 50 - HW May 2022

then as now
Then as now
– May 1992 & 2012
IN OUR MAY 1992 magazine 30 years ago, we were noting the much- needed makeover of New Zealand’s True Value Hardware stores.
Not to be confused with the US operation of the same name, True Value Hardware was originally incorporated in 1975 as part of the year-old, Takapuna-based Mitre 10 cooperative.
Fast forward to 1992 and we were talking about Dennis & Val Eddy and Eddy’s True Value Hardware in Temuka, which was the first of the True Value stores to be refitted and revitalised with a new brand and set of clothes.
Also featured in the rebranding story was Neno’s True Value Hardware in Mount Maunganui, whose owner Roger Seabourne had been working at the store almost since its opening under Hugh Neno in the late 1940s.
Another child of the fragmented hardware channel in the mid-1970s was Hammer, which was born when Remuera hardware store owner Rod Dargaville joined with Epsom retailer Peter Fantham and a handful of other hardware
Back in 2012, 24-year-old Kiwi builder Michael Jones invented a new all-in-one builder’s tool which acted as a ruler, bevel and set square. The patented 3 Way Tool has since been joined by other clever tools and the company making them is still family-owned and still led by the same Mike Jones.
merchants to form Hammer Wholesalers.
Back in the 1970s, Hammer Wholesalers competed head-on with
the likes of Mitre 10 but was struggling by the mid-90s, so Mitre 10 took the group under its wing and ran it alongside True Value for a while.
By 1999, however, Hammer Wholesalers and True Value would be folded into a new brand – Hammer Hardware – and the True Value brand disappeared altogether.
At this point we return to Temuka and the Eddys, who had carried on with what became Eddy’s Hammer Hardware, only selling up in 2013 to the current owners, Karl & Pamela Johnson, after some 32 years in the business.
STANDING THE TEST OF TIME SINCE 2012
20 years later, in our May 2012 magazine, we note the launch by Roy Morgan Research of its very first New Zealand Customer Satisfaction Awards.
Nulpariam, soluptatquo et ulpari ut eiusapidel ipsus mo totae periassi si cor autates eatur as et quos il im nos pos apitius, vit minum quis nita qui sam, n
Following the launch of the first monthly Kiwi results, we also reported on the winners for the 2012 year, which found ITM to be the top hardware store and Dick Smith the top furniture/electrical store (as an aside, all 360+ Australasian Dick Smith retailers would close early in 2016).
Happy to be looking back now on something that has stood
the test of time, 10 years ago we were also heralding a brand-new builder’s tool which acted as a ruler, bevel and set square, all in one.
The 3 Way Tool’s inventor and developer was a then 24-year-old Kiwi builder, Michael Jones, who was in the last six months of his apprenticeship when he hit on the idea.
Best of all, the 3 Way Tool was picked up by Bunnings and then by Mitre 10 and PlaceMakers and has since been joined by a range of hand tools, some with unique patents, and with more to come.
All now come under the banner of Alf Tools (www.alftools.com), which is a family-owned Kiwi business, and still led by the same Mike Jones.
Also new to the world back in May 2012 was our website
– www.hardwarejournal.co.nz – which made its debut on a Friday night with the breaking news of Mitre 10’s new “Easy As” programme!
48 NZHJ | MAY 2022
MORE AT www.hardwarejournal.co.nz