Former Williams and Kettle employees Dale Smith (left) and Lyne Fitzgerald with the 1980 photo of W&K staff that has jogged their memories of workmates from decades before, and helped with preparations for a second reunion. The first was in 2013. Photo / John Gillies
Former Williams and Kettle employees Dale Smith (left) and Lyne Fitzgerald with the 1980 photo of W&K staff that has jogged their memories of workmates from decades before, and helped with preparations for a second reunion. The first was in 2013. Photo / John Gillies
Memories and stories will be brushed off as former Williams and Kettle Gisborne staff prepare for their second reunion.
Williams and Kettle was an iconic stock and station agency based on the East Coast, established in the late 1800s, which was taken over by PGG Wrightsons in 2005.
Dale Smithand Lyne Fitzgerald have organised this reunion, just as they did for the first in 2013.
The starting point for much of their research into former employees has been a photo of Gisborne staff, taken in 1980 to commemorate 100 years in business.
“If you are in the photo, please come and join us,” Fitzgerald said.
A 1980 photo of Williams and Kettle Gisborne staff has been a starting point for preparations for a reunion on Saturday, June 21. Eighty people turned up for a previous reunion, in 2013. Organisers are hoping for 60 this time round. Photo / John Gillies
The invitation also applies to people who were with the company before or after the photo was taken.
Former staff are meeting for afternoon tea and drinks at The Forces Cafe in the RSA building on the corner of Childers Rd and Bright St, Gisborne, at 2pm on June 21.
“In 2013, we had 80 former staff turn up,” Smith said.
“We’ve got 40 registered for this one; that leaves room for 20 more. They can get in touch with Lyne or me. We’re in the phone book.
“Two are coming from Australia. One of them was going to be here for his granddaughter’s 21st, so that was good timing.”
Smith and Fitzgerald organised the 2013 reunion because they were “both retired and had the time to do it”.
“This one was organised over a bottle of wine,” Smith said.
“We were going to have a catch-up with all the girls, and it grew from there.”
Fitzgerald was with the company from 1965 – the year she got married – to 1999. She was a cashier in the main office, starting in Customhouse St and finishing on the corner of Disraeli St and Gladstone Rd, where the Graham and Dobson offices are now.
Smith had 18 months in the main office after starting with the company in 1973, then moved to the liquor store on Customhouse St, where she was a cashier until she left in 1994.
The proximity of the courthouse, across the road, led to some dramatic incidents.
“We used to get people escaping from court. There was a false ceiling between the shop and a tea room upstairs. A police dog looking for an escaped prisoner got between the stairs and the false ceiling and fell through it, but was okay.”
One staff member chased someone he’d seen pinching something, but wasn’t thanked for his efforts.
“He chased him all the way to Kaiti, and then he got a growling from the boss for deserting his position in the shop. He’d started work in the shop that day.”
In 1891, they incorporated a limited liability company to work as a co-operative, and operated as a stock and station agency and as general merchants.
The company had a presence that extended down the east coast from Ruatōria to Gisborne, Hawke’s Bay, as far south as Pahīatua and as far inland as Taupō.
Williams and Kettle was bought by Wrightson in 2005. At that time, Williams and Kettle operated through 35 branches spread mainly throughout the east coast and the centre of the North Island.
