Early history In 1918, Henry Cooper Smith established City Market on Colombo Street in Christchurch. The business initially auctioned grain, livestock and general goods, but later began to specialize in new and used furniture and hardware. The flagship Colombo Street store was still operating more than 100 years later, in 2020. Smiths City opened its first store outside Christchurch, in Filleul Street,
Dunedin, in 1977. LV Martin & Son merged with Smiths City at the end of 2015 with all stores now displaying the Smiths City branding. It held talks with its primary lender
ASB Bank, and the bank agreed to delay a debt repayment. However, the company's share price plunged when the trading halt ended on the following trading day, 30 March. The company's
Blenheim store, the largest tenant of
Marlborough District Council, was given a rent discount during the lockdown. Within the first week of the lockdown, the company was also given permission to sell essential goods online. In May 2020, Smiths City undertook a major restructure due to the ongoing impact of the virus. The board voted to go into
receivership to fast-track a potential sale without time-consuming shareholder approval. It laid off 115 workers, about a quarter of its national workforce. It also closed seven of its 29 stores. The sale took place over
Zoom, without the buyer being able to visit any physical stores.
2020 relaunch The new owners closed Smiths City's operations in Auckland, where it had struggled against Australian rival chains like
Harvey Norman and
Freedom Furniture. In June 2020, Smiths City opened its first new store after going into receivership in
Petone. The store is the only store in the Wellington region following the closures of the previous three branches; Lower Hutt, Porirua and Kapiti. In July 2020, Smiths City opened a new flagship store at
The Colombo Shopping Centre in
Sydenham. The original flagship store, on nearby
Colombo Street, remained open. By October 2020, the company had returned to profit,
Demise Smiths City started downsizing its store numbers in 2025 in an attempt to recover profit. However, on Tuesday 2 September 2025 Smiths City was placed into
voluntary administration, with
BDO reappointed administrators. Administrators Colin Gower and Diana Matchett of BDO Christchurch said "The company has faced increasing financial pressures in a challenging economic environment". who earlier took back operations in an attempt to stem losses. Debt estimates were at $26 million, with $10 million owed to secured creditors. Several other creditors are expected not to receive anything. The
High Court of New Zealand declared owner-director Colin Neal
bankrupt after incurring at least a $1 million debt from unpaid rent and restoration costs at the Tower Rail Precinct,
Hornby and not responding to the debt. A
New World operator also was filing a bankruptcy order on Neal after also being ignored. ==References==