Wednesday, July 9, 2008

THE ZENITH

And recollections of Manners Street – the stamping grounds for the Chun family

(thanks to Uncle Nigel for history research)


The Zenith name in Wellington and Christchurch was synonymous with the Chun Family.

If you were a Chun, you were somehow connected with Zenith. The Zenith Company supported many Chun’s and their families for over 50 years.

So where did Zenith all begin?

Well, it actually began with a Ting – Ted Ting (Edward Chin Ting to be exact),  and we have to look a little bit into the Ted Ting's history to find the beginnings of the Zenith.

My Grandfather, Ted Ting, was my Mothers (Marie Chun) father.

Ted was born in Pahiatua in 1904. In 1908 the family moved to Wellington to take over  a local importing business “Yee Chong Wing & Co” in Courtney Place, and the “Te Aro Seed Co” in Moxham Ave, Kilbirnie. This was also the Ting family home.


 


Ted helped in the family business. But he also was a bit of an adventurer and had signed on as a deck hand on a ship and traveled the world. He loved the NZ outdoors – horse riding, hunting, fishing, traveling around New Zealand.

Unfortunately for those days, it was these personal adventurist interests Granddad had, that created some animosity with his father, James Ting.

In 1930 Ted  decided to open his own Seed & Plant shop, in opposition to his Fathers Te Aro Seed & Plant Shop. One can only imagine how that went down in those days!

Quote Ted Ting … “Alex Smith of James Smith had 5 empty shops in Manners Street, opposite the Royal Oak Hotel. Alex offered me a shop, 6 months rent free, then 3 pounds 10 shillings a week rent. He would fix it up and paint it for free.”

It was going to cost Ted 37 pounds to outfit & stock the shop. He went  to the Union Bank (now ANZ) who loaned him the money and gave him a 50 pound overdraft – he stayed with them ever since.

He decided to name the shop Zenith after the carburetor in his car.

The Zenith Seeds shop opened on the 13th June 1933.

Later the Zenith Seeds Shop moved to 25/27 Manners street, next door to Begg’s Music Shop & Radford’s Furniture across St Hill St (the small lane between Zenith and Radford's - and the site of many parking stand-off's). Across the road was Tingey’s Paint and Home Decorating.

The Roxy Picture Theater (nicknamed the Bughouse) was just up the road on the corner of Willis and Manners St.



Stan's memories of Ted Ting ...

Here's a rare photo taken in January 1953 with a box camera. Having a picnic on the way to Paekakariki Beach are Ted, May, June, Shirl, Con & Helen. Ted picked us up in his Austin van nearly every weekend & took us for picnics or places like Red Rocks where he would buy us freshly cooked crayfish. Ted was a great guy! 



This was one of my first photo poses I took. Its Trevor & Beverly Yee sitting on Ted's Austin A2.2 Hereford Van across the road from the Chun Family 243 Riddiford Street home.






Down Manners Street towards Courtney Place were some other Wellington businesses you just don’t forget – James Smiths Corner, the Plaza Picture Theatre and the Adams Bruce Ice cream shop next door. Across the road from James Smiths was the Faggs Coffee shop where the haunting aroma of coffee beans probably made me addicted to coffee.


James Smiths Corner 1959

Superb night shot photograph by Stan Chun taken with a Panon A3 wide angle lens with a moving turret that gave 6 photos to a roll of film. Stan positioned himself under Vance Vivian's verandah to take the shot. To the far left is his Humber car parked outside Faggs.


Ted had 4 daughters and a son - Betty, Marie, Evelyn & Albert all helped in the Plant shop. The youngest daughter, Pauline, passed away in 1947 when she was 14.

In 1951, Ted sold the business to his son in law, Bill Chun, who had married his daughter  Marie. These two being my Father & Mother.

The Share transfer agreement document notes William Chun making payment of 3,500 pounds in consideration for all the shares in the company Zenith Seeds Ltd to Edward Ting, dated 19 March 1951.

Ted moved to Otaki and brought a small property to start a nursery growing plants for the Wellington market. As he got older he gave up the nursery and settled down with his family of ducks, cats, dogs, & sheep. I remember him always being busy doing something - making trellis, wooden boxes, wooden toys. He passed away in 1995 at the age of 91.

Bill Chun was the oldest son of a family of 18 children. He originally brought the Zenith business for the shop which he wanted to turn into a large fruit shop for the family to operate.

Bill, along with Mavis had responsibility for the well being of the younger members of the family. His Dad & Mum had passed away - probably due to the effects of having 18 children.

Bill had learned the Fruit retail business from his father. In his mid 20’s he enlisted with the NZ Air force and served overseas in the Pacific Islands during WW2. He was posted to the Solomon Islands in the Reconnaissance division responsible for processing photographs of aerial surveillance films. There he befriended some American airforce servicemen and one of them, Mal Gurian (who became one of the pioneers of cellular phone technology), still corresponds with the Chun family.


That's Dad in the centre, not a Japanese P.O.W!







Bill thought Ted’s plant shop was an ideal opportunity  to set up a Fruit shop business for the family to work in. He knew nothing about plants. However after buying the business, he noticed the plant business was quite good. So instead of closing down the plant business, he decided to divide the shop into 2 – one side selling plants, the other side selling fruit & vegetables. He gave the brothers & sisters the choice of either having the plant shop or the fruit shop. They chose the fruit shop and Bill and Marie started to operate the plant shop.

Business was good for both shops. Dad became more familiar with the plant business, retailing and marketing and business boomed. Next door - Stan, Alan & Connie created a wonderful business full of character and personality - Zenith Fruit and Easter Fancy Goods. The shops were very popular. I can recall in my childhood day, sitting in a cardboard box behind the counter while Mum & Dad were busy serving customers.

Those were the days when flower & vegetable plants were grown bulk trays and we would have to dig out exactly how many plants the customer wanted and wrap them up in newspaper.

In 1960 the 25/27 Manners Street property which was owned by Begg & Co Ltd (music store retailers) was offered to Bill and the family. They wisely brought it. The purchase price was 35,000 pounds and a 2,000 pound deposit was paid to Begg & Co Ltd on 17 March 1960.

I can never forget the delicious smell of fresh hand cut potato chips frying in peanut oil and sizzling rump steak on a hot black iron pan coming from that little kitchen at the back of the Zenith Fruit Shop.

Alan notices a bit more room to hang up a few more Lanterns.









The famous bead curtain doorway that led through to the infamous Zenith Rump Steak Cafe, where you could get a sizzling rare steak & chips and a karate lesson thrown in for good measure.





Stan, Helen and Lincoln Chun. 

Helen liked Stan's Rump Steak and Chips so much he gave her a Stan Chun "Special" Karate lesson and next thing you know we got a budding Audit Accountant in a link cane basket.




I remember when roses came in to the shop, all bundled up bare rooted from the nurseries. We’d fill bins with fresh sawdust and heal them in it. A kaleidoscope of red scratches down both arms went with this job. Roses were a huge part of the business in those days. We’d always sell out by the end of winter, and then that was it until next year.


Stan Chun ... In those days, Dressing mean't Window Dressing & it would take me hours on a Saturday night to do it while watching all the people marching off to the movies. Al Hobman did the window signs while I practiced my english calligraphy on the price signs.








Upstairs, we had a bulb & seed packaging operation going on almost the year round. The packed seeds and bulbs were sold in the shop downstairs and also later sent down to Dave’s Zenith operation in Christchurch. This gave opportunity to provide paid work for younger members of the family, like my brother and I and many cousins. I recall a young Japanese girl, Junko, who Uncle Alan had recently adopted as his daughter working away on the seed sealing machine. Little did I know we were going to be married one day – perhaps the seeds had been sown!


A water colour painting of Zenith's Manners St by Colin Allen 1986 (Downer/DGL commissioned the painting).







Dads younger brother, Dave became interested in the Plant business and went to Christchurch with 2 other brothers (Ron and Arthur) to start up a Zenith Plant Shop. Dad helped them set up the business and they ran the business independently of the Wellington operation. It was very successful and there were 5 branches of Zeniths before Dave sold the business to the Odering’s family and retired to Brisbane in the late 1980’s.

In the early 1960’s Dad opened a plant shop in the Phoenix Building in High Street, Lower Hutt. In 1963, Dad brought a large property in Epuni Street. It was an acre & a half (6,000m2) and had an old two storey wooden house on it. The rest of the land was covered in dense native bush. It cost 30,000 pounds.

Bill had visited Stan Palmer (Palmers Garden Centre) in Auckland, who had just opened the first large format Garden Centre in NZ. It was hugely impressive and Bill liked the concept. He thought there might be a 50/50 chance of success in Wellington - because of the poor autumn & winter weather.

Bill opened Zenith Garden Centre in 1965. It was the second large format garden centre in NZ to open. There was no shop and anyone wanting to buy anything went to the washouse in the old house to be served. Business was good and a year later a shop was built with the assistance of the Garden Centre Foreman, Frank Van Den Boss, who later went on to become the Nursery Foreman of the Wellington City Council Nurseries to produce plants for the city gardens and amenities.

As Zenith was the first Garden Centre to open in Wellington, the Hutt City Council did not know anything about “garden centres’ and took the view to granting a “specified departure” to operate a commercial enterprise in a residential zoning. The specified departure could only be used to operate a Garden Centre. The Garden Centre operated under this specified departure until the day we closed. Can you imagine the thought of trying to open a 6,000m2 Garden Centre in the middle of a residential zone now!

 

This was the Zenith Garden Centre when it was THE Garden Centre. It enjoyed the advantage of being open 7 days in the times when all shops in the weekend were closed and Shopping Malls were not in existence, neither were Japanese cars (check out the cars parked in the centre).












Freda McArthur, a Lower Hutt Camellia enthusiast, was one of the first full time people to work at the Garden Centre. Full of horticultural knowledge and always busy as a bee, she was much valued by Bill and the customers who were wanting advice for their gardens.  A Nurseryman who had recently emigrated to NZ from the UK became the first manager of the Zenith Garden Centre, Jim Wright. Another long serving Manager, John Carroll, later became Manger of the Coastlands Garden Centre and now manages a large Shopping Centre in Brisbane.

A young Kevin Pritchard worked from a schoolboy to adult Foreman at the Garden Centre then went on to open Pritchard’s Garden Centre in Coastlands.

The Garden Centre concept became a success, and the next garden centre to open was Brian Coopers Twigland’s in Upper Hutt. Keith Lowe was soon to follow with the very successful California Garden Centre in Miramar. Keith had been offered the Miramar site by Evening Post’s Blundell Bros family who used to store bulk newsprint rolls in the tank. Hands up who can recall the sound of a young boy shouting “Evening Peeooost” down Manner Street in the late afternoon?

Many customers and employees passed through the gates of our garden centre, hundreds of thousands - and I am sure, millions of plants (wonder if we can put in a claim for carbon credits?) One of the employees was Maggie Barry, who did her work experience with us as part of her horticultural certificate. Eric Odlum who used to be the Garden writer for the Hutt News, was a popular figure in the weekends as a Zenith Garden Advisor, where his purpose was to advise customers and sell them more that they intended on buying.

In the early to mid 1980’s the property developers swooped on Manners Street.

A deal was done with the Downer/Government Life Group - Hallam Creswell and Bernard Fenton representing the DGL Group -  Bill, Stan and Neville representing the little fruit and plant shop.


Zenith Manners Street closed on 13 June 1985 and it was truly an end to an era for the Chun family for both the Plant Shop staff  - Marie & Shirley (Doris had left at an earlier time) and the Fruit & Eastern Fancy Goods which was still being well run by Stan, Alan & Connie.






Taken on 23/7/86 ... Here stood the grand old Zenith Building with its 3 shops. The vacant lot where Stan took the photos used to be the Tingey's Building & was the site Chase Corporation built the Mid City Centre and later where Chase shareholders buried their share certificates.

The Burrell Demolition Crane was coming to get us next! When they did, it only took about 1 hour to turn us into a pile of matchsticks.


On 10/6/86 the ZFC began it closure by auctioning off its stock. This was handled by Pete Wedde and it took 3 days of flat out auctioning to clear the shops stock. Each day the shop was crammed full of bidders.

Alan went full time into his bean sprouting operation, Con went to work for Peter Chong and Stan to WT Rawleigh's as a Purchasing Officer.




Ian Atfield and Bill Chun rub shoulders at the Telecom Building grand opening function, July 1988. A Chun interest in the big green Ian Atfield designed "Telecom" Building is still retained.

 


 






Zenith Garden Centre continued in the Hutt Valley, with Bill & Marie, Neville and Danny having moved from Strathmore to live in the sunny Hutt Valley. Bill, Marie, Neville & Danny were based at the Epuni Street Centre, while Ray Chun, Bill’s younger Brother,  managed the smaller Park Avenue centre. Danny’s wife Marina (Tong) joined soon after marrying and was there to the day we closed the gates for the last time. Thank you Marina. She now operates a nice garden maintenance business, Zenith Landscaping Services.

Business continued to do very well for several decades, but in the late 1990’s and early 2000 – the retail scene in NZ changed dramatically. The advent of the Big Box Store, changing trends in gardening, highly competitive big $ marketing & advertising by national companies, increasing leisure activity choices - all had their affects on the Garden Centre industry and we found ourselves within a business in its sunset.

The reality was we once were one of the largest Garden Centres in Wellington, now we were among the smallest. Our location was out of kilter to mainstream retail trends and the land we operated on had become more valuable than the business operating on it. This could never be unlocked unless the trading business ceased.

Bill’s modus operandi was to always own the property he operated the business on to secure the success of the trading business. This worked brilliantly because when the trading business came to its end, the property had well and truly overtaken the trading business in value.

We gave it our best shot to keep the Centre open, even doing a major makeover of the centres outdoor areas and adding a Café – Zenstop – which was managed by my oldest daughter, Louise and I. This gave an opportunity for Chloe, my younger daughter, to work part-time and she became a great coffee maker. I also learned a lot of café skills after having realised that café staff (esp. chefs) can lead notoriously unstable lives as soon as they step outside the kitchen.

 


 

Zenith Garden Centre 92 Epuni St, May 2004 - Patio Entrance & the Garden Pathway that lead to the Garden Cafe.

As Stan says ... Both the Fruit and Plant shops went through similar phases of popularity then decline due to different trends and competition opening all over the place. The days of small business was over, now the huge eat the huge!


Zenith Garden Centre closed 30 March 2005 and that signed a final end to an era of Zenith in the public eye.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Awesome history Neville! I feel a Chun family history book coming on. Nigel

Anonymous said...

Fantastic! Really enjoyed that. Ken

Danny Yee said...

Wow! This is amazing- just hearing about these times and seeing these photos (which I'd probably never have seen) is really great.

Many thanks for that!

Unknown said...

Amazing history neville i never new about the epuni branch.You even have a john carroll i feel part of the history.

Unknown said...

Amazing history neville i never new about the epuni branch.You even have a john carroll i feel part of the history.

Malcolm Bates said...

I am so pleased I stumbled upon the Zenith's post. I used to work in the Tingey's paint and wallpaper shop at 30 Manners Street from 1981-1984 as a 15 year old schoolboy. There were many times I would pop across the road to Zenith's to buy a packet of lettuce or tomatoe seeds. What a wonderful history in compact form. I was a little emotional when I viewed the photograph from the demolished Tingey's site looking across to Zenith's wood building. I am going to bookmark your post for other's to read.

Anonymous said...

Ahhh Great Memories, Great People to work for Cold Winter Working days Marie would have a pot of hot soup on the Stove or us when we went upstairs for Lunch. When we thanked her she said "you are welcome, you work hard now" I still use that phrase. Then there were the Monday Morning Boss and Grasshopper session going over the last weeks Sales figures. Peter Lenz

Unknown said...

Great reading the history of the garden centre..i as dannys cousin,i always envied him cause he always had the best racing car-sets,tennis raquets,cause his dad had such a good business.where's i lived in a small fruit shop..
Just read stan chun's bio "newtown boy"..didnt even know he was one..thought he was always a "city zeniths boy"..i always thought the garden centre was a lucky gold mine,but its nice to know now the process of how a big thinker ,Bill Chun was..
Andy yee ,cousin,cairns aust'

Bob W said...

A wonderful account.
Many memories revived
Great things start in Newtown and families can support each other well beyond childhood

Leo Leitch said...

Loved reading this, Neville.

The story tells of a time attractive for its simplicity and its integrity. It seems we were happier then, certainly we were less stressed.

You might remember me from ANZ Bank, Waterloo Road, where I enjoyed my relationship with you as a customer, a valued customer.

As a schoolboy, my eldest son, Ben, worked at Zenith in one of the Lower Hutt locations.

Every best wish to you and your family.

Neville said...

Hi Leo, nice to hear from you! I sure do remember you guys. Always had trouble spelling your surname, haha. Golden times those weren't they Leo. I hope you and your family are well and healthy. Best regards, Neville

Anonymous said...

Good afternoon,

I have an exhibition featuring the demolished buildings on the Golden Mile at Mitchell Studios Khandallah, Wellington.
These were taken on film in the 1970’s and 1980’s and have been printed using traditional method ie wet chemistry.

I have in the exhibition an image featuring the shop when it was at 25-27 Manners Street
The opening is tomorrow night from 6pm. Please feel free to attend.
The gallery is open Tuesday to Friday 10 am to 3 pm and Saturday 10 am - 2 pm with the exhibition running till 2nd December.

The gallery link is https://www.mitchellstudios.co.nz/gone-not-forgotten-transient-spaces/



Regards, Mike Aamodt, 021 432 362