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Dick Smith Holdings Limited (formerly Dick Smith, Dick Smith Electronics or DSE) was an Australian chain of retail stores that sold consumer electronics goods, hobbyist electronic components, and electronic project kits. The chain expanded successfully into
New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
and unsuccessfully into several other countries. The company was founded in Sydney in 1968 by Dick Smith and owned by him and his wife until they sold 60% to Woolworths in 1980, and the remaining 40% two years later. In 2012, Dick Smith had 263 stores around Australia. It also had 62 stores around New Zealand, including 20 in Auckland. The company closed its stores in 2016, four years after its acquisition by Anchorage Capital Partners, though the Dick Smith name continues as an online brand operated by
Kogan.com Kogan.com is an Australian portfolio of retail and services businesses including Kogan Retail, Kogan Marketplace, Kogan Mobile, Kogan Internet, Kogan Insurance, Kogan Travel, Kogan Money, Kogan Cars, Kogan Energy, Dick Smith, Matt Blatt and Migh ...
.


History


Early years

The business started in 1968 in a small $15-rent-per-week premises in a car park in the Sydney suburb of
Neutral Bay Neutral Bay is a suburb on the Lower North Shore of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Neutral Bay is around 1.5 kilometres north of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of North Sydney Council. Neutral Bay takes ...
with a total capital of only AU$610 (equivalent to A$7500 in 2018). Initially, the business focused on installing and servicing car radios. In 1969, the business's success required it to move to bigger premises, first Atchison Street,
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, later Carlotta Street, Artarmon with flagship store nearby, on the Pacific Highway,
Gore Hill Gore Hill is an urban locality on the Lower North Shore of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Gore Hill is located within the southern part of the suburb of Artarmon, and the north-west of the suburb of St Leonards. History It takes its na ...
. When the entire electronics business landscape was remodelled by the Whitlam government's across-the-board 25% tariff cut in 1973, for the loss of 138,000 manufacturing jobs, Smith moved with the market and met the competition with a re-emphasis on imported electronic components and finished products. Alongside the car radio business, he opened "Dick Smith Wholesale". The business catered to electronics hobbyists, meeting a need Smith had felt. In those days, hobbyists could buy components only from larger wholesale companies better set up for dealing with commercial customers. After touring overseas electronic stores to study modern merchandising methods, Smith introduced self-serve shopping, a breakaway from the longstanding counter-sales setup found in component sales at the time, and produced an annual mail-order catalogue with a substantial data section.


Publicity stunts

The company promoted itself with wacky-style and Smith's own publicity stunts. For example, Smith claimed that he would tow an iceberg from
Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest cont ...
to Sydney Harbour, cut it up into small bits and sell it for 10 cents a cube. On the morning of 1 April 1978, it appeared as if he had succeeded as hundreds of phone calls reporting the iceberg began flooding into local newspapers and radio and television stations, most of which were from Dick Smith employees. The "iceberg" turned out to be a barge cloaked in white plastic sheeting and topped with
firefighting foam Firefighting foam is a foam used for fire suppression. Its role is to cool the fire and to coat the fuel, preventing its contact with oxygen, thus achieving suppression of the combustion. Firefighting foam was invented by the Russian engineer and ...
, an
April Fool's April Fools' Day or All Fools' Day is an annual custom on 1 April consisting of practical jokes and hoaxes. Jokesters often expose their actions by shouting "April Fools!" at the recipient. Mass media can be involved in these pranks, which may b ...
joke.


Expansion

The company profited from the
CB radio Citizens band radio (also known as CB radio), used in many countries, is a land mobile radio system, a system allowing short-distance person-to-many persons bidirectional voice communication among individuals, using two way radios operating on ...
boom of the 1970s and by the end of the decade had stores in all mainland states. Though many CB radio stores closed when interest waned at the end of the 70s, Dick Smith Electronics thrived on exploding PC sales and its established electronic components and kit lines. To ensure almost every electronic enthusiast in Australia had one of his catalogues, it was included free in the popular electronics magazines '' Electronics Australia'' and ''
Electronics Today International ''Electronics Today International'' or ETI was a magazine for electronics hobbyists and professionals. Originally started in Australia in April 1971, ''ETI'' was published in the UK in 1972. From there, it expanded to various European countrie ...
''. The catalogues included ever-increasing amounts of data on electronic components, which helped make it an essential reference for anyone involved in electronics professionally or as a hobby. Private-branding (as "Dick Smith" or "DSE") was introduced on a large range of products from the late-70s. Many DSE-brand products were re-branded versions of the same or similar products sold in parallel by their manufacturers. Dick Smith Electronics own-brand System 80 computer, which was a clone of the Tandy TRS-80 Model I, led a highly successful line, including the Dick Smith Cat (an Apple II clone), the
VZ-200 The VTech Laser 200 is an 8-bit home computer from 1983, also sold as the Salora Fellow (mainly in Fennoscandia, particularly Finland), the Seltron 200 in Hungary and Italy, the Smart-Alec Jr. by Dynasty Computer Corporation in Dallas, Tex ...
and VZ-300. The company also sold brand name
personal computer A personal computer (PC) is a multi-purpose microcomputer whose size, capabilities, and price make it feasible for individual use. Personal computers are intended to be operated directly by an end user, rather than by a computer expert or tec ...
s such as the
VIC-20 The VIC-20 (known as the VC-20 in Germany and the VIC-1001 in Japan) is an 8-bit home computer that was sold by Commodore Business Machines. The VIC-20 was announced in 1980, roughly three years after Commodore's first personal computer, the ...
and Commodore 64. In 1981, the Super-80 kit computer was developed as a joint venture between the company and Electronics Australia magazine. The company expanded its product range, especially during the 1970s and 1980s, and stocked items such as the
Heathkit Heathkit is the brand name of kits and other electronic products produced and marketed by the Heath Company. The products over the decades have included electronic test equipment, high fidelity home audio equipment, television receivers, amateu ...
electronic kits, satellite TV receiving stations, Beeple
pager A pager (also known as a beeper or bleeper) is a wireless telecommunications device that receives and displays alphanumeric or voice messages. One-way pagers can only receive messages, while response pagers and two-way pagers can also acknow ...
s and the Dick Smith Wizzard computer game. The company was an early seller of telephone equipment including
answering machine An answering machine, answerphone or message machine, also known as telephone messaging machine (or TAM) in the United Kingdom, UK and some Commonwealth countries, ansaphone or ansafone (from a trade name), or telephone answering device (TAD), ...
s, cordless and novelty phones.


Woolworths takeover

In 1980, the company had grown to 20 stores and the founder and his wife sold 60% of the company's shares to large general retailer Woolworths. The Smiths sold the balance of the company's capital to Woolworths in 1982, the total transfer price coming to A$25million. The company continued to add to its network of small "main street" stores in suburbs and regional cities across Australia.


Powerhouse

The late 1990s saw the company establish "Dick Smith Powerhouse" super-stores across the
east coast of Australia The eastern states of Australia are the states adjoining the east continental coastline of Australia. These are the mainland states of Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland, and the island state of Tasmania. The Australian Capital Territory ...
. The first Powerhouse store was opened in
Bankstown Bankstown is a suburb south west of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is 16 kilometres south-west of the Sydney central business district and is located in the local government area of the City of Canterbury-Bankstown, hav ...
in 1996. These were several times bigger than regular stores at approximately and contained departments for the main product categories and supermarket-style checkouts. The "Powerhouses", as they were known, carried a wider range of products than the smaller DSE stores, especially in the computing, audio-visual and amateur radio areas, and introduced Music to the range. Some installation services were also introduced as well as Computer repairs and upgrading. In 2002 and 2003, the Powerhouse concept changed to focus on a broader consumer market and less towards electronics enthusiasts. Component ranges shrank and general
electronics The field of electronics is a branch of physics and electrical engineering that deals with the emission, behaviour and effects of electrons using electronic devices. Electronics uses active devices to control electron flow by amplification ...
books ceased to be stocked. The
Yaesu is a district in Chūō, Tokyo, Japan, located north of Ginza, west of Nihonbashi and Kyōbashi, and adjacent to the east side of Tokyo Station. The Yaesu exit of this station, which faces Nihonbashi, is recent and primarily provides access to ...
amateur radio dealership was relinquished, ending a 27-year partnership. Electronic kits were transferred to the smaller DSE stores and were replaced by the short-lived appearance of small appliances such as
kettle A kettle, sometimes called a tea kettle or teakettle, is a type of pot specialized for boiling water, commonly with a ''lid'', ''spout'', and ''handle'', or a small electric kitchen appliance of similar shape that functions in a self-contained ...
s,
coffee maker A coffeemaker, coffee maker or coffee machine is a cooking appliance used to brew coffee. While there are many different types of coffeemakers the two most common brewing principles use gravity or pressure to move hot water through coffee gr ...
s,
toaster A toaster is a small electric appliance that uses radiant heat to brown sliced bread into toast. Types Pop-up toaster In pop-up or automatic toasters, a single vertical piece of bread is dropped into a slot on the top of the toaste ...
s and frypans. A home installation service known as "PowerSquad" to install major items such as TVs and computer systems or to provide set-up and training on smaller items such as
wireless networking A wireless network is a computer network that uses wireless data connections between network nodes. Wireless networking is a method by which homes, telecommunications networks and business installations avoid the costly process of introducing c ...
,
MP3 players A portable media player (PMP) (also including the related digital audio player (DAP)) is a portable consumer electronics device capable of storing and playing digital media such as audio, images, and video files. The data is typically stored o ...
and iPods was offered. In late 2007, Powerhouse stores also transferred many other small components, tools, leads and connectors to small stores, continuing to distance the super-stores from the company's electronic enthusiast roots.


Major changes

In early 2008, following Woolworths' review of its consumer electronics division, Dick Smith Electronics renovated its flagship store in
Hornsby, New South Wales Hornsby is a suburb in the Northern Sydney region, or Upper North Shore of Sydney in the state of New South Wales, Australia, approximately north-west of the Sydney central business district. It is the administrative centre of the local gove ...
, as a "concept" under the branding "Dick Smith Technology". The store's design and product range was completely reworked incorporating a more modern feel while removing all electrical componentry and much of its tools. These products were replaced with a larger range of
Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ser ...
computers, gaming, televisions and Mac computers, much of which had previously been only sold in Powerhouse stores. Following further strategic review, the company decided to push forward with the new concept under the reworked "Dick Smith – Talk to the Techxperts" branding, merging all existing Dick Smith Electronics and Powerhouse stores under the same banner. In late 2008 the new Dick Smith logo and format was rolled out with many Powerhouse stores such as
Macquarie Centre Macquarie Centre is a shopping centre in the suburb of Macquarie Park on the North Shore of Sydney and is located opposite the main campus of Macquarie University. Transport The Metro North West Line offers frequent services to Macquarie ...
and Auburn being rebranded to fit the new unified company logo. "Large Format Stores" opened in
Chadstone Shopping Centre Chadstone Shopping Centre (colloquially known as Chaddy) is a super regional shopping centre located in the south-eastern Melbourne suburb of Malvern East. Chadstone Shopping Centre is the biggest shopping centre in Australia and one of the bi ...
and Bendigo in
Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...
,
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,
Perth central business district Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth i ...
, Innaloo and Rockingham in
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, Hobart in
Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...
, and Stockland Rockhampton in
Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , establishe ...
, under new "Dick Smith – Talk to the Techxperts" branding. In March 2009, Woolworths CEO Michael Luscombe confirmed the end of Powerhouse as a separate entity, also adding that the company's third consumer electronics brand Tandy would be gradually phased out over the next three years as the stores' leases ended. This phase left "Dick Smith" as the sole brand in the parent company's consumer electronics division. The mail-order catalogue so central to the company's success from the early days was last published in 2009, giving way to the online sales platform.


Acquisition by Anchorage Capital

On 31 January 2012, after nearly 30 years of ownership, Woolworths announced that after the results of a strategic review and a $300 million restructuring, it would close up to 100 Dick Smith stores and sell the business. The company was sold to Anchorage Capital Partners in September 2012, for an initial cash payment of A$20 million and ultimate total price of some $115 million. It has been argued that Anchorage only put up $10 million in cash, the remainder of the funds being sourced from the business itself through liquidation of inventory, plant and equipment, and taking provision for future onerous lease payments, a process described as "the greatest private equity heist of all time". In November 2012, Nick Abboud was appointed CEO. In December 2013, Dick Smith was floated by Anchorage on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), becoming a
public company A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) company can be listed on a stock exchange ( ...
. At the time of the listing, the market capitalisation of the company was valued at A$520 million, less than two years after Anchorage had purchased the company for A$20 million. Anchorage initially retained 20% of the shares in the new company but had fully divested their holdings by September 2014.


Alliance with David Jones

From 1 October 2013, Dick Smith took over the operation of the home entertainment department in 30 David Jones retail stores in Australia and online. The venture traded under the banner "David Jones Electronics Powered by Dick Smith" and promoted televisions, computers, tablets, home office, audio-visual and other digital products, with employees and inventory transferred over to Dick Smith. By the second half of 2014, sales were running at A$1.4 billion per annum.


Closure

On 4 January 2016, with the value of shares in Dick Smith Holdings having fallen by more than 80% since they were listed on the ASX in December 2013, a halt in trading was requested. The following day, Dick Smith Holdings Limited (and associated entities) was placed into
administration Administration may refer to: Management of organizations * Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal ** Administrative Assistant, traditionally known as a Secretary, or also known as an administrative officer, admini ...
by its major creditors National Australia Bank (NAB) and HSBC Bank Australia. McGrathNicol were appointed as
administrators Administrator or admin may refer to: Job roles Computing and internet * Database administrator, a person who is responsible for the environmental aspects of a database * Forum administrator, one who oversees discussions on an Internet forum * ...
by the company's board but receivers
Ferrier Hodgson Ferrier Hodgson was a firm specialising in corporate recovery, corporate advisory, forensic accounting and forensic IT. The firm has a specialist management consulting arm called Azurium. Ferrier Hodgson was established in 1976. It became on ...
were appointed by the creditors.Dick Smith fears turn true
skynews.com.au, AAP. 5 January 2016, Retrieved 6 January 2015
CEO Nick Abboud stepped down on 12 January. Having failed to secure a buyer for the stores, receivers Ferrier Hodgson announced, on 25 February 2016, that all 363 DSE stores in Australia and New Zealand would be closed, with the loss of 2,460 jobs. On 15 March 2016 it was revealed that
Kogan.com Kogan.com is an Australian portfolio of retail and services businesses including Kogan Retail, Kogan Marketplace, Kogan Mobile, Kogan Internet, Kogan Insurance, Kogan Travel, Kogan Money, Kogan Cars, Kogan Energy, Dick Smith, Matt Blatt and Migh ...
, the online retailer founded by
Ruslan Kogan Ruslan Kogan (born November 1982) is a serial entrepreneur, and founder and CEO of Kogan.com as well as several other eCommerce-related companies in Australia. He was Australia's richest person under the age of 30 from 2011 to his 30th birthday ...
, had acquired the Dick Smith brand, trademarks, intellectual property, and its online business in Australia and New Zealand for an undisclosed price. The Dick Smith brand has been transitioned to an online-only store selling a wide variety of consumer items. The last physical retail stores closed on 3 May 2016. On 25 July 2016 Dick Smith Electronics' creditors placed what was then left of the company in liquidation. Creditors were expected to lose up to A$260 million. Though not connected with the company for 34 years, its founder Dick Smith expressed dismay at the closure and put it down to the "utter greed of modern capitalism".


Outside Australia


Hong Kong

DSE's first foray offshore was the establishment Dick Smith Electronics (HK) Limited in
Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...
in 1978. It operated a small buying office and one retail store, at two locations in Ashley Road,
Tsim Sha Tsui Tsim Sha Tsui, often abbreviated as TST, is an urban area in southern Kowloon, Hong Kong. The area is administratively part of the Yau Tsim Mong District. Tsim Sha Tsui East is a piece of land reclaimed from the Hung Hom Bay now east of Tsi ...
, Hong Kong. The store targeted tourists generally and Australians, in particular, looking for tax-free DSE products. An international edition of the flagship catalogue was published in support of the operation. In the face of fierce competition from established local retailers and disappointing sales, the business closed in June 1980.


New Zealand

Dick Smith Electronics registered for business in New Zealand in 1981 and is believed to have opened a store the same year. In 1992, the company acquired and rebranded the retail business of David Reid Electronics, a similar chain that at one time consisted of about 30 stores. In some cases, this meant that for a time two Dick Smith stores operated in the same suburb. In New Zealand, Dick Smith Electronics had over 75 locations. They included the "Powerhouse" stores, the first of which opened in
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, followed by
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and
Sylvia Park Sylvia Park is a large business park and shopping centre in the Auckland suburb of Mount Wellington in New Zealand. Less commonly known, the area around the centre (which includes some residential and other commercial developments) is also ca ...
in
Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about ...
, and
Palmerston North Palmerston North (; mi, Te Papa-i-Oea, known colloquially as Palmy) is a city in the North Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Manawatū-Whanganui region. Located in the eastern Manawatu Plains, the city is near the north bank of the ...
. A third brand "Dick Smith Technology" store opened in Lower Hutt, following the same Powerhouse product range. Its
e-commerce E-commerce (electronic commerce) is the activity of electronically buying or selling of products on online services or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain managem ...
website had been using a search engine by
SLI Systems SLI Systems provided cloud-based search tools for online retailers under a "software as a service" (SaaS) model. It was a public company listed on the New Zealand stock exchange. SLI is an acronym for Search, Learn and Improve. Products SLI's ma ...
that learns from what the users search for. The Powerhouse brand was discontinued in 2009.


United States

From 1980, DSE operated a small number of stores in the United States, in Northern California and
Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
, but had closed by the end of the decade.


Sponsorships

DSE sponsored the
Melbourne Stars The Melbourne Stars are an Australian Twenty20 franchise cricket team, based in Melbourne, Victoria that competes in Australia's Twenty20 competition, the Big Bash League. The Stars wear a green uniform and play their home matches at the Melb ...
in the T20 Big Bash League cricket, a number of tennis tournaments including the
Hopman Cup The Hopman Cup is an international eight-team indoor hardcourt tennis tournament that played mixed-gender teams on a country-by-country basis.It was held in Perth, Western Australia each year from 1989 to 2019, before being replaced on the calen ...
(
Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...
), the
World Tennis Challenge The World Tennis Challenge was a three night professional exhibition tennis tournament held in the week before the Australian Open in Adelaide, South Australia as part of the Australian Open Series. The tournament was created by a consortium ...
(
South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...
), the
Brisbane International The Brisbane International established in 2009 is a professional tennis tournament played on outdoor hardcourts in Brisbane, Queensland in Australia. It is a WTA Premier tournament of the WTA Tour and was part of the ATP World Tour 250 seri ...
(
Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , establishe ...
) and the Apia International ( Sydney). The company was a sponsor of the
National Rugby League The National Rugby League (NRL) is an Australasian rugby league club competition which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. The NRL formed in 1998 as a joint partnership ...
nine-a-side tournament, the Auckland Nines and of the
AFL AFL may refer to: Sports * American Football League (AFL), a name shared by several separate and unrelated professional American football leagues: ** American Football League (1926) (a.k.a. "AFL I"), first rival of the National Football Leagu ...
club Richmond from 2008 until the end of 2011.


See also

*
Free Access Magazine ''Free Access Magazine'' is a free computer magazine distributed through major Australian consumer electronics retailers such Harvey Norman, Dick Smith Electronics and Myer. The magazine targets mainstream computer users and is designed to be eas ...
*
Jaycar Jaycar, formerly Jaycar Electronics, is an Australia-based retailer dealing in electronic components and related products for electronics enthusiasts. The company owns around 110 stores across Australia and New Zealand, and also sells its produ ...


References


External links

* – (Australia) * – (New Zealand) {{DEFAULTSORT:Dick Smith (Retailer) Australian companies established in 1968 Australian brands Companies based in Sydney Consumer electronics retailers of Australia Music retailers of Australia Video game retailers in Australia Electronic component distributors Retail companies established in 1968 Woolworths Group (Australia) Retail companies disestablished in 2016 Australian companies disestablished in 2016 Defunct retail companies of Australia