The GB Group
History of the Guthrie Bowron Group
Guthrie Bowron was founded in 1896 by Dunedin born Henry Guthrie who was later joined by George Bowron from Rangiora. Henry travelled the Central Otago region by buggy selling sweets and ale while George covered the Christchurch and West Coast regions.
In the mid 1920's Guthrie Bowron became involved in importing lacquer, varnish, lead and linseed oil - the base ingredients for paint at the time. In 1932 the Company was appointed agent for Dulux Paints and around this time opened a wallpaper shop in Christchurch.
Guthrie Bowron became a public company in 1963 and by 1969 had 18 branches throughout the country retailing mainly paint and wallpaper. In 1971 the company was purchased by ICI (NZ) Ltd the owner and manufacturer of the Dulux paint brand and by 1985 had 34 outlets. In 1992 Guthrie Bowron was sold to a team of senior managers who set about franchising the stores. This resulted in growth over the next decade to a total of 53 stores.
In 2005 Guthrie Bowron was sold to investment company Waterman Holdings Limited. Operations Manager Colin Jones was appointed General Manager of the business and Brendan Martin was recruited as Marketing Manager. The team at Group Office is charged with supporting the network and growing the business for the benefit of all stakeholders.