1900 - H & J Smith was established by brother and sister John Smith and
Helen Hay Smith in 1900 as a drapery store in
Invercargill. The original H & J Smith store was located at 125 Dee Street in Invercargill, this store was expanded in size in 1905.
1905 – H & J Smith opened their second store in the Southland town of Gore, with the original store being in the Criterion Hotel building on the Main Street of Gore.
1911 – H & J Smith opened a branch store in the Southland town of Riverton located at the corner of Napier and Palmerston Street. The Riverton store closed in 1919. H & J Smith Gore operated at this location for 107 years until 2020.
1922 - H & J Smith purchased the Price & Bulleid building located at 66 Tay Street with the Invercargill store relocated to this location. When the new store opened the ground floor covered half an acre and the number of employees had grown to 131. This store was extended in size over the following decades with the store eventually spanning from Tay to Esk street. H & J Smith Invercargill remained in this location until 2023 when H & J Smith exited the department store division of the business.
1940 – A clock tower was erected at the corner of Tay and Kelvin streets of the Invercargill store. The original clock tower had multiple analogue clocks facing Kelvin Street, Tay Street and the street corner.
1954 -
Queen Elizabeth II visited Gore and dined at the Women's club located in the H & J Smith building.
1958 – Invercargill store extended to Esk Street with the completion of a 3-storey building on the corner of Kelvin and Esk street. The Esk Street extension allow the main isle of the store to run from Tay Street to Esk Street.
1967 – Purchase of Thomson & Beattie with Arthur Barnett Ltd. T&B had been operating a drapery store for almost 100 years and had stores in Bluff, Gore, Tay Street Invercargill and Windsor Street in Invercargill. The Bluff and Gore Thomson & Beattie stores were closed, Windsor rebranded as H & J Smith and the Tay Street Invercargill store later used for Outdoor World.
1969 – Frontage of the Invercargill store remodelled replacing the various facades used across the buildings to a single façade. The analogue clock at the Tay and Kelvin street end was replaced with a digital time and temperature clock and a second clock tower at the corner of Esk and Kelvin street was built.
1970 - Viking Room restaurant opened in the H & J Smith Gore store located at the rear of the first floor. A multi storey car park building is built on Esk Street across the road from the H&J Smith Invercargill store.
1980 – Purchase of Marguerite Leatherware and Hide Shop Ltd, The Hide Shop sold tourist merchandise with the original store located in Colombo Street in Christchurch. Hide Shop stores were opened as stores within H & J Smith stores during the 1980s and as standalone stores including a Hide Shop store in Taiwan.
1983 – A skybridge between the Esk Street car park building and the H & J Smith Invercargill store is opened.
1987 – Purchase of Ace Stores in Te Anau, the store was remodelled and rebranded as H & J Smith Te Anau. The remodelled store included a time and temperature clock similar to the clock on the Invercargill store. Purchase of Miss Nelson store which was located on Bridge street next to the H & J Smith Nelson store and a branch store in Richmond. H & J Smith Nelson store was extended into the Miss Nelson store and the Richmond store became a H & J Smith Richmond branch store.
1989 - H&J Smiths purchased the building on Esk street next to the department store, at the time this location was most recently used by the
Invercargill Licensing Trust as a liquor store and before this was home to Watts & Greive Ltd, a Morris car dealer. H & J Smiths took over the Invercargill Mitre 10 franchise which was originally located on Yarrow street and relocated the Mitre 10 store to the premises next to H & J Smiths with an entrance between the two stores created.
1992 – H & J Smith Stoke store is opened in the Nelson region in the former Trathens of Nelson Stoke branch store. H & J Smith purchased the premises on corner of Tay and Deveron streets Invercargill to be used by H & J's Carpet World and H & J's Electrical.
1993 - Big Scotty's a discount furniture store is opened on Clyde Street Invercargill. London Bookshops franchise opens inside H & J Smith Invercargill store, becomes Books and More in 1998.
Gun City franchise opened inside Outdoor World store. Purchase of Tapper's Ltd, relocated to Tay Street premises with Carpet World and Electrical.
1996 – H & J Smith Nelson store is rebuilt. The rebuild took place in stages allowing H & J Smith to continue to trade in the same location while construction took place.
1999 - H & J Smith Gore store refurbished, Viking Room Restaurant replaced with The Junction Café and relocated to the front of the store on the First floor. Main entrance relocated to the corner of Main Street and Irk Street. Books and More franchise added to the Gore store including NZ Post Services.
2000 - H & J Smith celebrates the centennial of the company. Construction of three new stores at Remarkables Park in Frankton, Queenstown. The stores included a Big Scotties furniture store, Element (Outdoor store) and a new location for Queenstown Mitre 10. Following the closure of the Hallensteins store in Gore, H & J Smith takes over the lease of the store and the Gore store is extended into the former Hallensteins store with the space used as the Menswear department.
2001 – Purchase of Arthur Barnett Balclutha store, rebranded as H & J Smith Balclutha.
2002 – H & J Smith Blenheim store opens.
2005 – Mitre 10 Mega store is opened in Invercargill on the corner of Tay Street and Elles Road in the former Woolworths Supermarket. H & J Smith Windsor Street store is closed.
2006 - H & J Smiths exits the Nelson region with the Motueka, Richmond and Stoke stores closed in 2005. The Nelson and Blenhiem stores were closed in 2006. H & J Smith Queenstown store is relocated to the Remarkables Park centre. H & J's Appliance Centre is opened in the former Mitre 10 store on Esk Street, closed in 2011.
2009 - An espresso bar, Mooch Cafe is opened next to the Tay Street entrance of the Invercargill department store.
2011 - The Invercargill Paper Plus franchise, which H & J Smith had purchased in 2010, was incorporated into the main Invercargill store, replacing a Take Note franchise. Postal services were removed at this time, however in 2019 postal services were reinstated after the Invercargill Post Shop closed down.
2014 - H & J's Outdoor World on Tay Street is relocated to the former Mitre 10 and Appliance Centre building following a major rebuild of the store. Outdoor World rebrands as Outdoor H & J Smith.
2015 - Purchase of Arthur Barnett Dunedin store, rebranded as H & J Smith Dunedin. Queenstown Mitre 10 store was relocated to Shotover Park in 2015 as a Mitre 10 Mega store.
2019 - In February 2019 the Gore store was consolidated to a single floor with the public toilets and Soft Furnishings the only parts remaining on the First Floor. The consolidation to a single floor saw the closure of the
Junction Café in 2018.
2020 - All H & J Smith stores were required to close during the Level 4
COVID-19 lockdown. On 25 May 2020, it was reported that H & J Smith was considering closing its stores in
Dunedin,
Mosgiel,
Balclutha and
Te Anau as well as the Armoury Store in Dunedin and Outdoor World in
Queenstown as a result of the economic effects of the global
COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand. H & J Smith would maintain a presence in Gore but downsize the store. The store closures were confirmed in June 2020 with Balclutha and Te Anau stores closing in late July, the Gore store downsized and the Outdoor World store in Queenstown closed at the end of August. These closures affected 60 employees.
2021 - H & J Smith Dunedin and Armoury Fashion Boutique in Dunedin are closed. H & J Smith Mosgiel is taken over by Longbeach Holdings Ltd trading as APT Collections.
2023 - In May, H&J Smith announced that they proposed to close all of their remaining department stores (Invercargill, Gore, Queenstown) by November citing a decline in the department store model and the cost of renovating and strengthening the Invercargill flagship. The other stores owned by the group (
Mitre 10 Mega Queenstown, Mitre 10 Mega Invercargill and Laser Electrical) would not close but they would look at selling off their Gun City, Paper Plus and school uniform services. Following the confirmation of H & J Smith's decision to exit the department store business the following departments were taken over by H & J Smith staff or suppliers: • H & J Smith Gore was taken over by Longbeach Holdings Ltd trading as APT Collections. • Longbeach Holdings opened an APT Collections store in the
Invercargill Central Mall employing H & J Smith staff to manage and work in the store. • Armoury Fashion Boutque was taken over by H & J Smiths fashion buyer and continues to operate in the H & J Smith building. • The Gun City franchise was taken over by the parent company and continues to operate out of the Outdoor H & J Smith building, with access to the rest of the building removed. • School uniform shop The U Shop is created by H & J Smith and The Uniform group. • Paper Plus Invercargill was taken over by the store manager and continued to operate inside the H & J Smith Invercargill store until April 2024 before relocating into the
E Hayes and Sons building. • Curtain Call Soft Furnishings department taken over by an H & J Smith employee trading as Scarlett Rose Interiors. • Remarkable Park Menswear was taken over by an H & J Smith employee trading as Mr Davis Menswear. H & J Smith Remarkable Park store closed on 28 October 2023. == Department stores operated by H & J Smith ==