Business Hall of Fame: Founder of department store inducted

John Ballantyne founded the department stores that still bear his name. Photo / Supplied

The founder of an iconic Kiwi department store is to be posthumously inducted into the New Zealand Business Hall of Fame.

The 19th century business leader, John Ballantyne was a draper, entrepreneur and farmer who built the successful retail brand Ballantynes which still operates today.

Born in Scotland in 1825, Ballantyne trained as a draper and moved to Adelaide where he established a branch of drapery business, McArthur, Kingsbury and Co in 1853.

A year later Ballantyne married Sarah Ann Thorne, the daughter of a Somerset farmer. With her he had twelve children, only eight of whom survived to adulthood.

After initially relocating back to Britain to educate his family, John returned to Adelaide to purchase a drapery business which became J. Ballantyne and Co. and was re-joined by his family in 1868.

The family moved to Christchurch in 1872 and purchased the already prominent drapery business Dunstable House, renaming it J. Ballantyne and Co.

Over the next seven years, the business thrived. Deeply religious, Ballantyne ran his business with a philosophy of "honourable and upright dealings" – an ethos that gained the company an excellent reputation during what was a time of great economic prosperity in the Canterbury region.

In 1879, Ballantyne sold the business to a partnership including his son Josiah. Full ownership of the firm eventually passed to two of his sons, Josiah and William, who continued on with the strict trading philosophies of their father.

While retaining an active interest in the business, John pursued his lifelong desire to go farming, purchasing Staple Farm at Ruapuna, Canterbury.

Over the next six years he added several other major properties to Ruapuna Farm and established forestry and irrigation initiatives in the region, as well as doing a short stint in Ballantynes' London Buying Office.

In 1883, John moved to Timaru to capitalise on the increasingly affluent economy in the South Canterbury, where he purchased a drapery shop, Victoria House, which became a southern branch of Ballantynes.

When he died in 1899, The Press newspaper recorded that 50 to 60 carriages formed the procession that followed the hearse to his funeral in Upper Riccarton, Christchurch.

Today, Ballantynes employs over 300 people in its shops in Christchurch and Timaru, including some members of the Ballantyne family.