Doing Well and Doing Good: Ross and Glendining: Scottish Enterprise in New Zealand

During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries large numbers of Scots emigrated to seek their fortunes around the world. Better educated than the English and with a strong Presbyterian ethic, they were unusually successful in business and politics. This was true for New Zealand as elsewhere. Two contrasting characters – Caithness-born John Ross and Robert Glendining from Dumfries – founded Ross & Glendining Ltd in Dunedin in 1862, during the gold rush. At one stage the country’s largest manufacturer and home of many popular brands, R&G was initially a drapery importing business, which opened branches throughout New Zealand and warehouses in all the main centres. Careful management and efficient systems enabled the business to grow, despite strong competition from Australia. After the investment boom of the seventies, it diversified, investing in sheep runs, a woollen mill, other manufacturing, and even a coal mine. This history offers a portrait of a firm over a hundred-year period – its growth, decline an