1926-1927

The Dunedin Exhibition finished in May 1926, and at this time it was pretty obvious that we were at last growing too fast for our London friends, and that certain embarrassment was taking place, owing to the locking of their capital, and not being quite satisfied that I knew all their story, I determined to go Home on a quick trip and find out. Early in April I left for San Francisco, made the minimum stops, and actually arrived in England on the 28th day from leaving - which at that time was just about a record. Under the circumstances, seeing that I had just written and said I was going, and that was all there was to it, I got a very poor reception, in fact, I didn't get a reception at all. Nevertheless I had an objective, and after ten days of arguing and so on, I gained that objective. I found out the trouble and came ot the conclusion that just as our friend in London had put all his confidence in me in 1921, thereby giving us the opportunity of creating a business for both of us, now it was my turn to, at whatever sacrifice, do anything and everything possible to alleviate the postion inadvertantly brought about by bad trade and large deliveries of timber to our friends in London. Having decided what I wanted, I immediately got busy on the cable and got Carlyle and Lewis to liquidate everything possible, even at a loss if necessary, in preparation for this return to London of such capital as was possible.

Meantime I made then what has ever since proven to be the most interesting and profitable visit, that is, profitable to this firm and myself, that I had ever made on the firm's behalf, that was, a visit to H G Jenkins of the Hans Renold Chain Company. After the first hour with this gentleman, I was sold for ever and enthusiastically sold, on the Renold Chain idea, not only on the idea, but on the goods and the honest quality thereof that Renold manufacture.

I utilised a few days at the Works to soak in as much as ever was lying about and that could be pumped into me, and before leaving I had got P S J enthusiastic too, and notwithstanding financial troubles at the time, had ordered a reasonable stock of Standard Stock Drives, which at that time went up to 10 h.p. only, to be sent forward to New Zealand.

Having determined that it probably would be necessary to liquidate the very valuable Ferodo stock we had, so that capital could be sent to London; I would have to sell it to some wholesaler, and in return, give him the exclusive selling rights for either the whole or part of New Zealand for some period of years. Nevertheless I determined to do that, and I determined that during that time of recovery, I would on my own, without staff and with minimum of expense, attempt the correct establishment of the Renold Chain Drive in New Zealand, again using specialised selling methods as we had done with Ferodo.

This decided upon, I got the first boat I could get that would get me home quickly, and actually arrived back on the 89th day from leaving - having had 30 days in England.

Interior Caledonian Hall, showing stock and samples of Renold Timing Chain, Vehicular Chain and Chain Drives. Office on left. Ferodo Stocks on right-hand wall, not visible.

I immediately got all hands in Wellington and took stock. Within ten days of my arrival everybody, excepting Mr Carlyle and Joe Self, got either a week's notice or a week's pay in lieu of notice, and was finished, leaving Carlyle to clean up one or two things in the liquidation of the stock, and Joe Self to handle it. Within sixteen days £4,500 of the £6,000 odd we had in stock was sold, and within a month of the date of arriving here, I remitted to London close on £6,000, which, apparently saved the day. Also by this date, Carlyle had cleaned up everything he possibly could, and he got a job and sailed for Australia, and Joe and I started to create a new business, after determining that we couldn't beat the policy that had been followed by Ferodo, that is, sufficient price to interest stockists to sell at a reasonable profit all over the country, and insistence on specialised selling by myself and everybody connected with the line.

To assist in the economy, we rented every part of the premises that we could find a tenant for and made the little bit that was left do for ourselves. This pioneer work continued for six months, the most difficult part being to find the correct type of engineering salesman to introduce and put over this, what appeared to be an absolutely new thing in New Zealand, in the form of Transmission, and although to get the right people, quite a few passed through our hands - to those early pluggers, we owe quite a lot - they did eventually get there.

Early in 1927 my time was greatly taken up with appointing and educating stockists. First, Charles Palmer of Auckland; second, Peter Kennedy of Christchurch; third, our old friends of Ferodo fame, Messrs R B Denniston of Dunedin; fourth, Wilkins Ltd of Invercargill; fifth, Union Foundries, Stratford, Hawera and New Plymouth; sixth, Holben & Hubbard of Palmerston North, and a year or two later Messrs Vulcan Foundry, Napier.

Up to this time, the staff had comprised: Mr Joe Self, together with a typist, one, Miss Blackie, and a part-time accountant; but Miss Blackie got married and, in January 1927, I engaged Miss Gibson as typist (and she is still with us); also a semi-retired accountant by the name of Gould. Towards the end of 1927 Mr Carlyle re-appeared in New Zealand and appeared to me just the very man to police and keep enthusiastic the stockists that had been appointed. We were certainly gradually getting established, and our Chain Drive sales steadily approached £5,000 per annum, by July 1928.