John Danks outside Danks Furnishers which is set to close and be replaced by La-Z-Boy. Photo / Paul Taylor
John Danks outside Danks Furnishers which is set to close and be replaced by La-Z-Boy. Photo / Paul Taylor
Well-known Napier furniture store Danks Furnishers is set to close after 40 years - although not much will change in terms of the operation of the site.
Danks Furnishers was established by the Danks family in 1982 on its current site along Taradale Rd in Pirimai.
Danks Furnishers has beena huge seller of carpet and flooring goods in Hawke's Bay over the years as well as furniture.
The business was bought about 12 years ago and the carpet and flooring side of the business is now Carpet Court.
The furniture store department still goes by the brand name Danks Furnishers, right next to what is now Carpet Court.
That furniture store will close on March 14 and the Danks brand will essentially disappear after 40 years.
A clearance sale is currently under way.
Danks Furnishers co-founder John Danks said not much would change at the site, with another furniture brand set to move into that space and Carpet Court set to continue as normal.
"La-Z-Boy will be taking over the Danks Furnishers site, until their new building is completed down the road," he said.
"So from the middle of next month we will just have a new label across the front, it will be La-Z-Boy, so actually at this point nothing really changes ... there is just a new name across the door."
Pedlars Napier is also set to close. Photo / Paul Taylor
John said the move to drop the Danks name had nothing to do with the impact of Covid, and was largely a business decision around utilising an Australasian brand in La-Z-Boy.
Danks Furnishers began with father Peter and sons John, Robin and Stephen Danks, and the family had been operating the site for years before launching Danks Furnishers.
At its height, Danks Furnishers had multiple stores around Hastings and Napier before consolidating at its current premises in Pirimai.
John, who will continue working at Carpet Court, said many loyal customers had been through the store sharing kind messages and memories.
Meanwhile, another business, Napier Pedlars, is also closing down. It is understood that decision was also unrelated to the impact of Covid and the store will close this month.
An expert says Hawke's Bay's economy has shown good resilience compared with many other regions across New Zealand during the Covid pandemic.
It comes as many businesses - particularly hospitality and retail businesses in Napier and Hastings CBDs - continue to struggle with low customer numbers.
"It's a reasonably diversified economy, compared to some other regions, so that has certainly helped," ANZ agriculture economist Susan Kilsby said, of the local economy.
"And its attraction as a domestic tourist destination has also been helpful for the Hawke's Bay economy.
"While the domestic tourists may not be spending as much as those that came off cruise ships and the big international visitors would have done, they are certainly spending more in Hawke's Bay than in some other regions of New Zealand."
She said countries overseas were seeing people return to services, such as hospitality venues, following a big rise then fall in Omicron cases.
Kilsby said it could indicate a similar bounce back in Hawke's Bay in the future.
"We are just starting to see that trend [globally] back toward services," she said.
"That is a positive indication that people are getting on with their lives."
She said a positive for regional areas like Hawke's Bay for the future was more people may move to the area and work for large businesses remotely from home, which has become normalised during the pandemic.
"That is one of the things that I see as a positive for our regions."
