Retiring businessman Hughie Hughes (left) with new owners Josie Wilkie Reedy and husband Eruera Reedy at a function last week to mark the passing of the baton for Ruatōria's multifaceted store. Photo / Paora Brooking
Retiring businessman Hughie Hughes (left) with new owners Josie Wilkie Reedy and husband Eruera Reedy at a function last week to mark the passing of the baton for Ruatōria's multifaceted store. Photo / Paora Brooking
It’s not a kingdom – more like an emporium. And the keys to it were handed over to new owners last week.
Hughie Hughes has retired from running his multifaceted business in Ruatōria and a couple with deep East Coast roots have taken over.
Josie Wilkie Reedy and husband Eruera Reedy have bought the business and buildings, effective last Friday.
Hughes had earlier proposed Te Runanganui o Ngati Porou take over the services he provided, but “Cyclone Gabrielle struck and things turned to custard”, he said.
The new deal brings to an end a 70-year personal business history between Hughes and Ruatōria.
That year he established Hughie Hughes Electrical. Ruatōria had 14 shops when he arrived, he said. Now it had the business he established, a food market, the pub and the Kai Kart.
Over the years, as people went out of business because of hard times, Hughes stepped in and added those services to his electrical business.
Hughes said he was leaving with no regrets and plenty of good memories of the coast, but the 1980s were tough.
“Muldoon, the arsons, Rogernomics, the 1987 crash, Cyclone Bola and the replacement of farms with trees” were his verbal shorthand for the factors that afflicted Ruatōria in that decade.
“The farmers and stock agents disappeared and Ruatōria turned into a ghost town,” he said.
“In the past 30 or 40 years I’ve ended up having to pick up all those things the other shops did.”
The first extra business he took on was home appliances, in 1956, and then in 1961 he took on the Fisher & Paykel agency.
Later came a dairy, which he leased out. He had a plumber working out of his building and a post office that could process road user charges and vehicle registration.
His place was a collection point for medicines. He sold gas bottles, television sets, satellite dishes, alcohol, clothing and gardening equipment.
“We had anything people want,” Hughes said. “It’s not a general store. It’s an emporium.”
Hughes turns 91 on May 9. He wasn’t even 90 when his “kids” – think 50s and 60s – urged him to sell up and take things easier.
“I was getting a bit tired and grumpy,” Hughes said, and he realised the kids had a point.
“I’m going to retire and lie back and make like a 90-year-old. I just want to sit with my partner (Pat – she’s been with him for 35 years) in town and be an old man. Until now I’ve been climbing up roofs and under floors. The bones are getting a bit stiff.
“It’s been 70 years almost to the week, and I’ve had a most enjoyable life up here.”
Lorna Hughes, daughter of Hughie Hughes, hands Eruera Reedy the keys to the business that was the home of Hughie Hughes Electrical (and assorted add-ons) and will now be known as Nati Traders Super Hub. Photo / Katherine Callaghan
After Cyclone Gabrielle, while the runanga was focused on recovery efforts, Hughes was on the lookout for buyers.
Eruera and Josie were born and bred in Ruatōria. When things got financially tough on the coast, they moved to Wellington where Eruera worked as an accountant for six months, then 26 years in government departments, ending as deputy secretary of Te Puni Kōkiri.
In recent years he has acted as a business broker for international clients, matching people overseas with New Zealand products.
“Ever since we left, we’ve come back to the coast every two months,” Josie said.
“We have a daughter in Wānaka. She and her husband have been away from the coast for 12 years. We need someone to come home, and they said: ‘You find us a business and we’ll come back’.
“We went and bought the bed-and-breakfast next to the bus depot. While we were back we heard Hughie’s business was being sold to the runanga.
“He said, ‘You’re the only coasties who still come back. If I sold this business to you, what would you do’?
“I said, ‘I would keep it as it is, but make it bigger and better’.
“We finally got everything lined up at Christmas last year. We met in February and shook hands. We’re taking over the whole business; we’ve bought the building, everything. We’ll change the name to Nati Traders Super Hub.
“We didn’t want to see another business close down here.
“We took possession of the B&B last Friday (April 4). It will be known as The Cross N. Our daughter Darling will manage The Cross N, and her husband George Mathieson will manage the Nati Traders Super Hub. He’s an electrician by trade.
“Eruera and I will be based here until the end of July, by which time we’re hoping Darling and George will have shifted to Ruatōria.”
Josie’s father, Charlie Wilkie, was a transport operator in Ruatōria in the 1930s and ‘40s, running buses, taxis and trucks.
“I was adopted by Charlie and Te Oti Wilkie. Their youngest son was 22 years older than me.
“Te Oti was nicknamed Joe Boot. She was a massive gardener and every time someone visited her, she’d be in the garden in her boots. I had a wonderful upbringing here.”
Eruera comes from a prominent East Coast family. His mother and father are Sir Tamati and Lady Tilly Reedy and his whāngai (foster) parents were Eruera and Verna Manuel.
“Eru was headhunted by Dalgety in Gisborne,” Josie said.
“They wanted someone intelligent they could put in accounts and put through extramural studies to become an accountant. He passed his exams and was all set to go to head office in Wellington.
“But my parents needed help with their care and I went back up the coast to look after them. I told Eru to go to Wellington, but he came home as well and worked for Dalgety in Ruatōria.”
When Dalgety wound down their business, Eruera bought into the New Zealand Taxation Ltd accounting group and set up East Coast Taxation Services in Ruatōria. Then came Cyclone Bola, economic hardship for the coast and the shift to Wellington.
It was Eruera’s birthday last week. He is 70; she is 69.
Before they left Ruatōria for Wellington, both had connections with Hughes.
Josie was the first woman to join the Ruatōria fire brigade and Eruera was the treasurer for fundraising efforts for the Ruatōria St John Ambulance building. Hughes was active in both organisations.
