Family business Magness Benrow still going strong at 80 years old

One of Auckland’s oldest and best known family-run businesses is turning 80.

Famous for their quirky radio advertisements, Magness Benrow is still going strong.

The retail home appliance company was founded by engineer Roly Magness after World War II.

Roly had already started Magness Sound in 1935, aged just 15.

His son John has been at the helm of the business since Roly’s retirement in the early 1970s.

John told RNZ First Up’s Nathan Rarere that his father worked as a refrigeration engineer during the Second World War, conscripted to maintain the equipment on US warships that came to New Zealand.

“And on Armistice Day he walked out, started his own business, and started making refrigerators a couple of years later.

“It all went from there. He had the sound systems, Magness Sound which has run longer than the retail arm.”

Magness Sound is still operating, and is run by John’s brother, Peter Magness.

“We’ve done the sound with the Auckland Trotting Club for 72 years, did Around the Bays, all the Grand Prix and things like that for many, many years and they’re still going.”

John said when his father was making refrigerators he had about 30 people working for him, at a factory in Eden Terrace behind the shops.

“He could fix anything,” John said.

He remembers Roly serving the community through his seat on the Auckland Regional Authority both before and after handing the reins of the company to his sons.

But it was not a career path John had thought about.

“I didn’t really care. I was more into sport and things like that. And the very first job interview I got was with Radio New Zealand.

“I had the job, walked up the first morning, and the boss walked down and said, ‘You can’t work here because your father’s in the industry’.

“And out the door I went. I lasted five minutes.”

John has been with Magness Benrow full time since the mid-1960s.

“It’s a long time. I always remember the first day I went to Form 1. College.

“The old man came home that night, he said, ‘What time did you get home?’ I said ’10 to five’.

“He said, ‘When you walk up Khyber Pass tomorrow, instead of turning right for the bus,’ (the shop was still in Eden Terrace) he said, ‘Come down and you can start working for me’.

“Didn’t pay me. But I never thought to ask either.”

By 1988, Magness had taken over Benrow Appliances to become Magness Benrow.

These days, and in the past couple of decades, most Aucklanders will know Magness Benrow through its long history of advertising on the radio.

“We’d done a lot of paper advertising, and nearly went broke with the paper advertising at that time,” John told First Up.

“I cancelled that and went back to radio advertising, which I’ve done ever since. I always remember Phil Shone [1ZB breakfast announcer of 1940s and 1950s], he said, ‘John, you’ll never own the radio waves like your father.

“I probably do, but it’s cost a hell of a lot more.”

Magness Benrow’s radio commercials star John and his offsider Adrienne Harrison, who joined the company in 1978.

“We send in a little script,” John said. “They have a couple of writers that’ve chopped and changed over the years.

“And then when I get bored saying them, I say whatever I feel like. Or [Adrienne] does if she wants to cut me down. But no, they’ve gone very well and been very successful.”

John Magness put the company’s longevity and success down to customer and staff loyalty.

“We’ve been very lucky. So many of the people that have bought over the years keep coming back. And that, you know, gives you great thrill.

“I recently had a woman a couple of months ago, came in and said, ‘John I need a new fridge’. She said ‘I might as well have a washing machine at the same time.

“She said, ‘I’ve always bought everything from you’. I said, ‘Oh, that’s good’.

“When we went [to her home], her old fridge was 1972 and the washing machine was 1968.”

A key reason for the Magness Benrow’s success, John said, is the women who have helped run the business.

“Yvonne Boyd… Lynn Hardy and then Adrienne. In a company you’ve got to have that person that has got a memory and wants to work.

“Those three ladies probably had more to do with the success of the company than anyone else. More than me, more than anyone.”

And what do New Zealanders buy a lot of? John Magness said they go through dishwashers.

“People sometimes wait a week to get a new fridge when the fridge packs up. But if the dishwasher doesn’t go two nights in a row…”

As for the future of Magness Benrow, John said he has two children in the company, but he’s not forcing them to stay.

“If they want to do it, it’s there. I think that’s the big thing in life. Not leaving your kids a requirement, but something that, if they enjoy it… they will be very different to run it, to what I am. So be it.”

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