Podcasts Other The Mike Hosking Breakfast Tony Caughey: Smith & Caughey's Chair on the continued operation of their Queen Street store

Tony Caughey: Smith & Caughey's Chair on the continued operation of their Queen Street store

Published: Aug. 6, 2024, 8:44 p.m.

Historic Auckland department store Smith and Caughey's is living to fight another day. \xa0

The 144 year old business announced in May it would close next year, but today revealed measures to let it stay open.\xa0

It will downsize physical trading to the ground floor of its Queen Street store, cut about 100 staff and close the Newmarket branch, and ramp up online operations.\xa0

Chair Tony Caughey told Mike Hosking that it won\u2019t be the scale it was before and it won\u2019t be the same sort of retail operation, but they think they can make a go of it.\xa0

He said they\u2019re shrinking their brick and mortar because they think it\u2019s appropriate for the market, so they\u2019ll see how the balance with online retail plays out.\xa0

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