Winstone Limited’s Formation and Growth

The name Winstone Limited (Ltd) may be familiar to those who have grown up or lived in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland. But what might not be realised is the extent to which Winstone Ltd fostered the city's development into what we see today. What started as a humble endeavour by two young brothers, attempting to make a living for themselves in the land of opportunity that was early colonial Auckland, created a legacy.  

Whether it was in significant ways, such as earning the contract to demolish Point Britomart, reclaiming the land in Auckland’s foreshore, or the quarry outputs which provided the literal foundations for buildings, roads, and bridges across the city. Or in minor ways, such as providing the tile roofing for the University of Auckland Clocktower, Winstone Ltd has been an underlying but meaningful presence in Tāmaki Makaurau.

Image: Office of W. Winstone, 1864. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections AWNS-19240327-50-03. 

Early years of W & G Winstone

William Winstone, like many young British men in the nineteenth century, decided to immigrate from Somerset, England, to New Zealand in 1859 at the mere age of 16. With only 30 shillings to his name, William worked odd jobs such as planting potatoes and carting goods in the Waikato War until he had earned enough to purchase his first horse and cart in 1864. By building connections and gradually earning commissions on jobs, William was able to earn a steady income and build his capital. When George Winstone, William’s younger brother, arrived in Auckland in 1869, William was well enough established to sell him a portion of his shares, and together with a combined capital of 630 pounds, the partnership of W & G Winstone was born. The company remained under this name until 1904, when it became the private liability company Winstone Ltd.

Image: William Winstone and George Winstone, circa 1880. Fletcher Trust Archives P6245/38.

Image: Hauling logs out of the bush- horse and railway, circa 1910. Fletcher Trust Archives P6008/4.

The company W & G Winstone attained a notable standing within a few years of its founding, procuring land, contracts, employees, and a foundation in transport. Transporting goods was the company’s principal activity, with a shift in priority towards quarrying around the 1920s. In their formative years, the W & G Winstone business operated as cartage contractors to Queen Victoria. In 1870, a one-room office was purchased on Custom Street to conduct business. This was followed by the setting up of offices in 1874 at 36 and 37 Custom Street, which were later moved to 69-77 Queen Street, keeping the business in the heart of Auckland’s commercial activity. W & G Winstone played a substantial role in the reclamation work in the central city through their carrying, excavation, and the supply of scoria and metal from their Mount Eden quarry site, which contributed to the development of areas such as Commercial Bay, Hobson Street, and the waterfront as we know them today.

Image: Winstone's Horse Fleet leaving No.1 stables, Symonds St, Auckland. Circa 1880. Sparrow Industrial Photographers. Fletcher Trust Archives P6252/7.  

 The company's assets steadily grew from William’s simple horse and cart. By 1881, they had several furniture vans, trolleys, carts, and a growing convoy of horses. Following the establishment of the Symonds Street Stables in 1884, they had a respectable stable, with around 200 Winstone horses transporting goods daily on the roads in 1918. Fifty horses at a time would be kept in the stables, with the rest residing at George Winstone’s Mount Roskill estate. They would be regularly rotated and cared for to maintain their health and standard. Aside from the inner-city cartage, the horses were also used for bushcraft. Trees would be cut down and transported on horse-drawn railways to the loading banks. From these banks, eight horse wagon teams would take them on to the mills. With buildings being primarily made from timber in this era, this was an important endeavour for construction. 

Image: Winstone Ltd's fleet of motor vehicles parked in a row before leaving for work. Supplement to the Auckland Weekly News, 27 March 1924, p.50. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections AWNS-19240327-50-09.

The Winstone horses were renowned for their quality, being prized for being the best horses adapted for heavy carting. Their most famous horse, ‘Duke of Argyll,’ could haul two tons worth of goods. Despite the strength and number of horses, as technology evolved, the company had to adapt its transport fleet from horses to primarily motor vehicles. Being early to this transition, with Winstone’s first motor truck in 1914, posed challenges. For example, tyres were rare and expensive, costing up to £100 per tyre to repair, and while blacksmith shops were prevalent, mechanics were scarce. As a result, in 1928, Owen Winstone (George Winstone’s grandson) travelled to the United States to the Gregory Tyre and Rubber Company to understand the construction and repair needs of tyres. He returned with knowledge and equipment that were vital to the company’s transition to motorised transportation and to staying ahead of the competition. By 1952, only three Winstone horses remained. 

A Family Composition 

As William and George settled down, married, and had children, they began bringing their sons into the business and based the company's philosophy on family. They ensured, however, that in most cases, the sons who would eventually take over from them worked their way up from the bottom, licking stamps and delivering messages to earn their place and understand the value of hard work. The legacy of Winstone family involvement was largely from George’s side, as he had taken over management following a blasting accident in 1870 that rendered William half-blind.

Family was at the heart of Winstone Ltd, both in the literal composition of managing staff and in a value-based sense. Owen Winstone, son of George Winstone Junior, who worked at the company from the age of eighteen, recalled that the Winstones treated their employees as extended members of their family. Influenced by their ardent Methodist values, the Winstone family focused on being just, equitable, and merciless in both their business and personal lives.

Image: Winstone family portrait. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections T1536. Photographer: Charles Northwood, Bellwood studios. 

George Winstone Junior became one of the most influential figures in the company, working there from 1891 until 1954, and serving as Chairman of the Board of Directors from 1932, when his father died. He worked tirelessly to expand and maintain the company. George Junior’s first family home was located adjacent to the company's Symond Street stables, so that he was able to tend to the horses in the face of fire or any other issue that endangered them. George Junior, following in his father's and uncle's footsteps, had a tireless work ethic, starting at 5 am and working until 9 pm to supervise the organisation and dispatch of horses.

Image:  George Winstone Jnr, 1950. Fletcher Trust Archives P6245/39

Image: Percy Winstone 1945.  Fletcher Trust Archives P6245/40.

The company's interpersonal nature had both benefits and shortcomings. Jim Betham, an employee of Winstone Ltd from 1948 until 1990, noted that George Junior and his brother, Percy Winstone, knew all their employees and their families personally. As a result, many employees felt a loyalty to Winstone Ltd as an employer. However, arguably, one negative aspect of it being a “family business” was, as Betham described, a distinct hierarchy within the company, with the sons and grandsons of George Winstone occupying the top positions. Despite being high up and good businessmen in their own merit, it was said that most of the Winstone sons continued to go to George Winstone Senior for approval on company decisions, even after his retirement.

Companies that are characterised by their pioneer disposition, as reflected in Winstone Ltd, operated in a distinct interpersonal manner. Within the network of preeminent early Auckland families, close relationships extended beyond the personal sphere into the professional realm. For example, when William started with his single horse and cart, the horse died, and fellow settlers purchased him another one out of collective kindness and camaraderie. This spirit of colonial cooperation was also adopted into the Winstone Ltd methodology.  

Image: William Winstone with his carriage horse called Tommy, circa 1900. Fletcher Trust Archives P6245/3.

When Joseph Craig, of JJ Craig Limited, which was Winstone Ltd.’s main competitor at the time, was suffering because of a colonial bank crash, George Winstone Snr bought out his plant and gave it back to the family to allow them to rebuild their business, and did the same again when the Craigs lost their draught horses to a stable fire. Eventually, JJ Craig merged with Winstone Ltd in 1968. The established “code of honour” meant that these pioneers would often support one another in the face of hardship, regardless of the threat other businesses posed to their own interests, making the nature of these organisations distinct from the independent, impersonal nature of many modern corporations.  

This personal approach has had a lasting influence on how the company has been perceived over the years, implying that it is a factor in its enduring success and positive public relations. The company's ability to succeed in the colonial era and beyond has been attributed to various factors by different observers. For example, particularly patriotic takes by the New Zealand Herald and North Shore Times suggest that the “grit and stickability” inherited by the founders as “stock” of the British Empire, and the quality of fidelity, were central to Winstone’s longevity in business. In comparison, Eric Winstone, Chairman and Managing Director from 1954 until 1968, described the success as the result of the business transitioning from a partnership to a family company. Yet family alone cannot justify Winstone Ltd’s success. A combination of perseverance and a constant balancing of current and future needs in the construction industry helped the company develop, expand, and sustain itself for an extended period.  

Accrual, Acquisitions, and Amalgamations 

Winstone Ltd needed to diversify over time and adapt to the country’s needs in order to survive and grow. From its founding in 1864, the company experienced substantial growth, expanding across New Zealand and entering new projects and subsidiaries both independently and as joint ventures. Winstone Ltd rose from a turnover growth of under 1000 pounds per year in the 1860s to $NZ 7,155,573 by 1953. By their centennial year, Winstone Ltd had acquired a variety of subsidiary companies, including Winstone Wallboards, Winstone Aggregates, Winstone Transport, Certified Concrete Ltd, Vibrapac Blocks, and more. In 1982, the company had established and acquired 17 wholly owned subsidiaries.

Image: Vibrapac Blocks Ltd - Three Kings, Mt Roskill, Auckland: 1964 Roskill Stone wall with Winstone Ltd signage on top. Fletcher Trust Archives P6018/45. 

Winstone Ltd began to face challenges in maintaining and growing its profits in the late 1970s. Despite still being considered a key player in the building industry, the evolving nature of the sector led to a reduction in the breadth of the market. With controversial government budgets, a decline in building permits, rural recessions, and reduced domestic housing needs, the primary demand shifted away from foundational building material, which Winstone specialised in, into home repair materials. Interim reports in the 1980s began to note the “difficult and demanding” circumstances in the building industry, citing tightened liquidity and escalating costs. Auckland’s infrastructure and buildings had been developed, with Winstone playing a key part in this growth, but this rapid evolution from sparse land to dense dwellings and quality roads meant that by the late twentieth century, there was a less drastic need for the company.  

Despite adversity, Winstone Ltd maintained its status in the industry, with international ventures providing greater short-term stability. By the 1980s, as the company expanded substantially, Winstone Ltd became largely independent of the Winstone family's involvement, both in a directorial and financial sense. By 1983, with no Winstone family members remaining on the board of directors following the retirement of long-serving Alan Winstone, and with Brierley Investment Ltd. gaining majority shareholder status over the family, the nature of the company had changed. The amalgamation of Winstone Ltd into a subsidiary of Fletcher Challenge, with whom the company had worked in joint interests in Certified Concrete Ltd since 1938, marked the end of the company as an independent, family-owned business.

Winstone Ltd was sold in March 1988 for $444 million. But, the sale was not without controversy. After finding a loophole in the Commerce Act 1983, Brierley Investment sold Winstone to its subsidiary Golden Bay Cement, a joint venture with Fletchers. Brierley then sold half its Golden Bay shares to Fletchers, thereby transferring Winstone to them through this unconventional transaction. Following appearances in the High Court over the matter, the sale went through, and Fletchers acquired Winstone Ltd. 

Winstone Ltd began with the dreams of two young entrepreneurs and grew into one of the largest companies in New Zealand’s industrial sphere. Winstone Ltd appeared to survive through its personal, determined nature and its ability to diversify and expand its focus in response to the city’s needs. While Winstone’s work helped shape Tāmaki Makaurau into the largest city in New Zealand, as the city developed, it likewise shaped the company by influencing its focus, which will be the focus of the next article in this series on the rise of Auckland’s quarries. 

Author: Penny Valentine, Auckland History Initiative Summer Research Scholar

Penny is in her third year of a conjoint Bachelor of Laws and Bachelor of Arts majoring in history. Her research explores Winstone Limited and its connection to Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland’s built landscape, inspired by my ancestral connection to one of its founders, George Winstone Senior. Through this project, she began by examining the company's story from its founding until its acquisition by Fletcher Challenge in 1988, considering the factors that enabled Winstone Limited to survive and grow so successfully. With a special focus on their role in quarrying, and the consequences of this industry, it revealed the surviving legacy of Winstone Limited surrounds us to this day. 

Penny would like to thank supervisors, Dr Jess Parr and Professor Linda Bryder for their help during this project. She would also like to thank the archivists at the Auckland Libraries, University of Auckland, and Auckland Council for their support and resources. A special thank you to archivist Rachel Bell at Fletcher Trust Archives for the support and access to collections, and to Robyn Winstone for her records and publications. 

Read the rest of Penny's research on the Auckland History Initiative website.