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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Otago & Southland Provincial Districts]
Thomson, Bridger and Co., Ltd
Thomson, Bridger and Co., Ltd. , (James Cox Thomson and Walter Gow, Managing Directors), Ironmongers, Hardware, and Timber Merchants, and Woodware Manufacturers: Wholesale and Retail establishment, 144 Princess Street; Factory and Iron Yard. 54–62 Bond Street, Dunedin. P.O. Box. 119. Branch at Dee Street, Invercargill. The large business conducted by this firm was established in the early sixties by Messrs Guthrie and Larnach, and was afterwards conducted by the Dunedin Iron and Woodware Company, Limited, till 1887, when the extensive premises in Princes Street South, which at that time were being used by the company for the conduct of their manufacturing and general trade, were totally destroyed by fire. It was soon after that disastrous event that Messrs Thomson. Bridger and Co. became purchasers. In 1894 Mr. Bridger died, and Mr. Gow, who was formerly manager of Messrs Briscoe and Co.'s Dunedin house, joined the firm in April, 1898. In the following year, having purchased the stock of Messrs Walter Guthrie and Co., Limited, from the liquidators of that business, a branch was established in Invercargill, under the management of Mr. James Allan, one of the partners. The firm was turned into a limited liability company in 1902, with Messrs Thomson and Gow, as managing directors, and Mr. James Allan continuing the management of the Invercargill branch. Messrs Thomson, Bridger and Co., Limited, are direct importers of all classes of ironmongery and hardware, and their business extends throughout the colony. The Princes Street premises are used for offices and wholesale and retail departments. There are two large double-fronted shops with plate-glass windows, one entrance having been closed to make additional window space for displaying stock. The wholesale department is on the first and second floors and in the cellar. The iron yard is in Bond Street, where iron, steel, and other metals, and heavy goods are stocked, and where the firm manufactures spouting, ridging, and fencing standards. The timber yards and woodware factory are also in Bond Street; and the factory is provided with up-to-date plant for sawing, planing, and moulding, bending, and turning, and other appliances for conducting the manufacture of all cases of woodware, including door sashes and all kinds of joinery, also rims, spokes, naves, felloes, shafts, dairy plant and machinery, churns, butter workers, cheese and milk vats, tallow cases, butter cases, kegs, etc., etc.