Brothers help to revive heritage of Levene brand

A household name in home decorating is on the comeback reports Karyn Scherer.


The smell of turpentine brings back strong memories for Paul and David Trewavas.

As youngsters, one of their after-school tasks was to help their father fill turps' bottles for his paint and wallpaper store.

It's an experience retail icon David Levene can also relate to - and perhaps the reason he gets on so well with the Taupo-based brothers.

Which is just as well, because as fate would have it, the Trewavas brothers are helping to ensure that the Levene name not only lives on in retailing, but once again establishes itself as a household name to be reckoned with.

Eighteen months after the collapse of Levene & Co, the pair are reintroducing the home-decorating chain to Auckland, and are determined to see it flourish.

In a curious twist to the Skellerup saga, the new flagship store will be in Auckland's Wairau Park, on the former Levene Extreme site still owned by David Levene and with many former staff re-employed in their old jobs.

The move comes 13 years after the pair first became involved with the Levene brand.

In 1986, David Levene persuaded them to become the first Levene franchisees. Within a few years, they found themselves with three stores, in Taupo, Palmerston North and Masterton, and they also took a 50 per cent share of a further two outlets, in Napier and Hastings.

The collapse of Levene & Co in 1997 did not affect independent franchisees, and they bought another three stores - in Hamilton, Rotorua and Tauranga - from the receiver.

The Wairau Park store is expected to open at the end of this month, and will be the 13th in a group which also includes a further four independently owned stores. The pair hope to eventually open more outlets in Auckland.

Although the site has been largely empty for the past 18 months, an independently owned cafe, Paninis, has remained open throughout and will be included in the new store.

The same person who designed the original store will do the new store, and while the familiar Levene atmosphere will remain, the look has been updated for the new millennium.

"We want to recreate the heritage of the Levene brand but we also understand that retailing has moved on, so we're moving forward," says Paul Trewavas.

However, one aspect of the business the brothers hope to retain is David Levene's insistence on "putting people first."

"It all comes back to people," says Mr Trewavas. "Because we've been around for a while, we know the suppliers very well and they're very supportive. If you get the people right, then you'll get the business right."

It also goes without saying that David Levene is never far away.

"Probably not a week goes by when he doesn't ring me up and give me a bit of advice. And of course, he's been supportive of what we're doing here."