John Burns and Co., Hardware and General Merchants.
Corner Customs and Commerce Streets, Auckland with branches in most major centres throughout New Zealand.

Brand: National (Radios and refrigerators).

National branded radios were made by various manufacturers, including Westco Radio Products, Radio (1936) and Sheffield Radio Ltd.

John Burns arrives from Glasgow in 1882 and sets up a general chandlery business importing ironmongery from California. The ships for the return journey were loaded with flax, kauri timber and gum, and wool. (The company was originally called Wingate, Burns and Co. In 1890 Mr. Wingate retired, has been conducted under the style of John Burns and Co.) [1] [2]

The John Burns and Co. store was a four-storey building at the corner of Custom and Commerce Streets in Auckland.

When John Burns dies in 1913, his son, Robert, takes over as Chairman/Managing Director. [3]

A disastrous fire swept through the Customs Street building in 1941.[4]

By 1963 the John Burns & Co chain covers the country from Whangarei to Invercargill.

By 1983 the chain had dwindled to one remaining store in Stanley Street, Auckland. It specialised in boat chandlery and was known as Burnsco Marine. The building had a distinctive trompe l'oeil of an Auckland ferry on its corner.

Keith Macleod purchases Burnsco Marine to add to his fledgling chandlery business and sets about building up the network again.

Keith Macleod retires in 2004 and his son Bruce takes over as Managing Director. Burnsco has 7 stores across the country.

Burnsco is firmly established as New Zealand's biggest seller of gear for boating, fishing, motorhomes and outdoors. The group's 15 stores stretch from the Bay of Islands at the top of the North Island to Christchurch in the South Island. [1]

[1] burnsco Company Website, accessed Nov 2021.
[2] Victoria University of Wellington Library, The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Auckland Provincial District] Burns, John & Co., accessed Nov 2021.
[3] Evening Post 10 Jan 1913, Page 9.
[4] Pahiatua Herald 19 Aug 1941 Page 6.