Printers To The Nation

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31119, 23 July 1966, Page 13

Printers To The Nation

(Specially written for “The Press” by A. J PETRE) JTEMS produced by the printing trade are in daily use in homes throughout New Zealand, and it is almost certain that many of the printed items in your home have been produced by the long-estab-lished Christchurch firm of Whitcombe and Tombs, Ltd., which prints a wide variety of objects from beer-bottle labels to biscuit packets; to the coloured calendar hanging on your wall. Not many realise just how. large is the factory of j Whitcombe and Tombs in Christchurch. It covers more than five acres between Colombo and Durham streets, not far from Moorhouse avenue. The firm itself is a Christchurch-born enterprise which has since expanded throughout New Zealand, and even to Australia, where the company has warehouses in Sydney, Melbourne. Perth and Geelong. Mr George Hawkes Whitcombe was the founder of the business that is now 'Whitcombe and Tombs. He begani his career as a partner in a bookselling business in Colombo street in the early 1870 s, and after several changes in partnership he decided to expand into printing as well as bookselling. He and Mr George Tombs, an experienced printing craftsman, went into business in 1882 in premises on virtually the same site in Cashel street as the firm’s registered office and retail establishment now stands. In 1883 the partners acquired fresh capital by forming a limited liability company, one of the first five such companies in New Zealand. First Prospectus The first prospectus said the company was being formed "... for the purpose of purchasing and extending the well-known and rapidly-increasing business of Messrs 'Whitcombe and Tombs, manufacturing stationers, booksellers, lithographers, printers and bookbinders, of Colombo street, Christchurch.” Mr Whitcombe became the managing director, and Mr Tombs the general manager, manufacturing department. The business rapidly expanded, and the first branch was opened in Dunedin in 1890. In 1894 the company extended to Wellington, and the business of Messrs Lyon