‘You don't buy a TV to eat’: Hornby Smiths City latest closure

Friday, 22 August 2025

The smith’s City store in Christchurch’s Hornby is tipped to close.

Another Christchurch Smiths City is about to shut, as the homewares chain downsizes across the country.

The company has opted not to renew its lease for the Hornby store, which opened in early 2023 in a new retail complex in Tower St.

The doors close on Monday, the company's website says.

The store is now advertising a closing down sale, saying stock is “priced to clear” and “everything must go”.

Smiths City owner Colin Neal said this week the company’s business had slumped 40% in two years. As a result, they were deciding against renewing leases for some stores to cut costs, he said.

Smiths City has been shutting stores across the country, including this one in central Christchurch.

Already this year, stores in Nelson, Blenheim, Wellington, Palmerston North and Tauranga have closed, and Wānaka was also in the process of closing.

The business announced last year it would close its central Christchurch store, where the business began over 100 years ago. The store’s remaining stock after a sale was moved to the Smiths City outlet at The Colombo mall.

Smiths City had 35 stores nationwide in its heyday and 25 stores when Neal acquired it. At the end of the month it will have 10 stores.

Earlier Neal said the century-year-old furniture and appliance chain was downsizing as store leases come to an end.

“It’s the economy … you don't buy a TV to eat.”

“Retail is tough,” Neal said.

Earlier, he said Smiths City had made all of its changes. “We've reduced staff at head office, we've reduced staff in stores. We’re just doing business as usual, trying to do best in our environment.”

Well-known brands like La-Z-Boy, Samsung and Panasonic have been disappearing from Smiths City website, and its product range is said to be getting smaller by the day. The retailer also stopped offering Airpoints as of July.

Retail NZ chief executive Carolyn Young said retailers were “doing it tough”, with many reporting declining sales and having to make difficult decisions around staffing and leases.

Big box retailers were feeling the same impacts as other retailers, but their pain was exacerbated on a much larger scale.

“A lot of money is being used on core, essential retail - fuel, telecommunications, electricity, especially in this time of year in winter - so there's nothing left for discretionary spend in other areas … there's been no quick wins for anyone.”

Young said it had been a challenging winter for retailers, and discounting and putting stock on sale was the only way to try to make sales and move stock.

Interest rate cuts in recent months have done little, if anything, to help retailers’ bottom lines. Any meaningful rebound in retail spending following an extended period of reduced sales was yet to happen, according to Retail NZ.

Kitchen Things is another whiteware retailer feeling the pinch in tough economic conditions. It is on the hunt for a buyer after going into receivership and closing its stores due to “sustained pressure from weaker consumer demand and increased competition on pricing, leading to ongoing trading losses” over the past two years.

Earlier this year BabyCity was saved last minute - acquired by the owner of baby pram and high chair manufacturers Phil&Teds and Mountain Buggy - after going into liquidation in late December. At the time it cited struggling due to economic pressure. Three of the stores seven stores were shut down, but new owner Campbell Gower spoke of a recent re-opening and his plans to open further stores.

‘No relief in sight’

On Wednesday the Reserve Bank cut interest rates to 3%, the seventh cut to rates since since the OCR peaked at 5.5% just over a year ago.

It signalled there may be scope to lower the OCR further, if medium-term inflation pressures continue to ease as expected.

Business strategist Juanita Neville-Te Rito, managing director of RX Group, said some retailers were making good sales volumes, but their margins were lower in the current climate. It was hard to say whether this would improve soon.

“We are seeing green shoots in sales numbers and some demand. But larger geopolitical issues affect consumer confidence. We [New Zealand] are a thermometer on interest rates, aren't we? I think we’ve got a few more cycles until we can say we’re confidently out.

“From Labour Weekend onwards we tend to see a good upswing in spend. And, when the sun comes out, people feel a little bit better about the world, and we do actually see that in the sales.”