Dick Smith, Georgie Pie and Pumpkin Patch: all failed to adapt to a fast changing world, here’s why

Retailers Cobb & Co, Dick Smith and Valentines were once household names, replaced by modern vibrant newcomers.

Here is a look at some of the once iconic Kiwi brands that failed to keep up with changing wants and needs of consumers.

Cobb & Co

In 2016 Cobb & Co said that it was planning a comeback, with up to 30 news restaurants to open, but it seems the casual restaurant once known and popular for its traffic light drinks and family-friendly meals has failed to rustle up demand with the public.

Cobb & Co, or “the Cobb” as it was affectionately known, once had 37 restaurants around the country at its peak, but that number has shrunk drastically and today there are just eight Cobb & Co’s located in regional towns and centres.

READ MORE:
* Customers cry foul after waiting months for items from Dick Smith
* Bring on the traffic lights: Cobb & Co returns to Porirua after more than two decades
* The rise, fall and rebirth of Valentines buffet restaurants

The brand underwent a refresh in recent years, refurbished its restaurants and menus, and returned to Porirua in 2020 with a brand-new store.

It is considered to be country’s longest surviving restaurant chain.

However, retail commentator Chris Wilkinson said Cobb & Co – despite its best efforts – had failed to cash in on the nostalgia surrounding the brand and memories many New Zealanders had of dining there through their childhoods.

He said the market had moved-on and tastes had changed and Kiwis now opted to dine at places like Lonestar and Joe’s Garage that served up more modern versions of the brand that had been able to sustain appeal.

“In those days when there was less competition, [Cobb & Co] was quiet successful. Some brands have been able to have a renaissance while others haven’t,” he said.

“Generally tastes and expectations have moved beyond that concept.”

Wilkinson said there was little reason for many people to visite these types of restaurants nowadays as consumers were now sought new experiences, which these businesses had largely failed to do until now.

This was the same with all-you-can eat buffet restaurant Valentines.

Valentines

Valentines restaurants were once a Kiwi institution of sorts.

But over the years there has been a rise, fall and rebirth of the family brand. The number of operating all-you-can-eat Valentines venues – once 12 – has been reduced to a humble five stores. All of them are in the North Island.

Two are in Auckland – Manukau and North Shore, respectively – the others in Rotorua, Hamilton and Hornby in Christchurch.

Valentines was the once the market leader in the Kiwi buffet restaurant industry because it was the only chain player in the game. That was no longer the case, and consumers had developed more sophisticated taste palettes than Valentines offered.

Wilkinson said New Zealand’s restaurant, beverage and hospitality market was highly competitive, which in turned required chains big and small to keep innovating to stay relevant and viable.

“I use the example of Joe’s Garage and Lonestar, because they are businesses that have captured the imagination of the market, have an enduring character to them and have maintained that endurance because of that experiential environment that they have got.”

Valentines was “kitsch” in its time, and considered a unique concept when it first entered the market, he said.

“That all you-can-eat-model was differentiating at the time; these days that is not a differentiator and that won’t pull any strings.

“The competition is that fast-casual dining market has increased beyond belief. There are lots of mini chains nowadays like La Pochetta and other regional groups that are doing it really well, plus the growth in the gastro-pub market.”

Dick Smith

Electronics retailer Dick Smith was once a household name in New Zealand, with a shop in almost every shopping mall across the country, before it collapsed and went into receivership in 2016.

The business that once employed over 3000 staff and operated almost 400 stores on both sides of the Tasman folded following a failure to secure adequate funding to support the business following years of declining sales.

Its failure is widely considered to be because the brand lost its original focus, and diversified into categories it could not sustain economically.

As Dick Smith died out, JB HiFi, a similar business began to rise and take the appliance market by storm.

Also yellow and black branded, JB HiFi was able to attract the attention of the New Zealand consumer in part to its lower cost value-based proposition and its seemingly handwritten price tags and had overall “throw in some fun” to the category.

“They have really drilled down on the theatre of retail particularly well,” Wilkinson said of JB HiFi.

“They are packed full of interesting products and are stores of discovery, packed full of new and interesting products and constant repetition of value that act as a magnet to draw people in wherever they are located.

Most appliance stores did not do that, and Dick Smith failed to offer the same appeal.

Dick Smith still exists, these days it is an online-only retailer, offering what it says is “the best in tech at amazing prices”. However, in recent years it has faced scrutiny for a barrage of delivery woes, with some customers waiting months for their orders to be delivered.

“Dick Smith in its dying years started to get into these things, but it didn’t work as it didn’t have the formula right. Previously they were an electronics-type supplier in consumable needs offering the likes of batteries that have become more widely available.”

Jaycar was more comparable with what Dick Smith offered in its stores back in the day, and had a much different story of success than Dick Smith had with its retail chain, said Wilkinson.

To be a successful retailer in the current market had become much harder in recent years as a brand new a unique proposition and to have a unique point of different to stand out, and largely a business that was able to source product directly and more importantly these days have aspects that consumers identified with.

Pumpkin Patch

Pumpkin Patch was not able to keep its top place in the baby and children’s wear market as consumers wants and needs in New Zealand split off into two directions – high-end wants and low cost essentials.

Failing overseas stores, global competition, and poor online strategy were the main reasons leading to Pumpkin Patch’s demise.

At its peak the mid-market retailer had 250 stores across New Zealand, Australia, Ireland, the UK and United States. But expansion into the US and UK, which cost about $98m funded by debt, failed and the stores were closed in 2011.

By February 2017 all remaining Pumpkin Patch stores in New Zealand and Australia had closed.

Wilkinson said it faced significant competition, and at the time new more interesting players like Cotton On Kids and Kmart were entering the market who served the market want of cheaper clothing.

The likes of retailers such as Nature Baby had since captured a large portion of the market, Wilkinson said.

“While Pumpkin Patch was unique for a long, long time it kind of lost its edge and people didn’t really know what it stood for anymore.”

A year after the chain closed down, private equity firm Alceon Group acquired the assets of Pumpkin Patch from Catch Group and floated the idea of a relaunch.

At the time, Alceon said it would relaunch Pumpkin Patch through another of its businesses – retailer EziBuy’s physical stores and online. It even spoke of the possibility to reopen Pumpkin Patch stores. However, this did not eventuate.

Auckland University business school marketing expert Bodo Lang said many of these brands that were no longer around or as successful as they once were as they had failed to evolved as the markets changed.

“What tends to happen to these brands is they have an offering that appeals to a particular market, and they don’t evolve much as the markets change, so they remain static. Meanwhile, the market changes and other independent and chain operators come in and have a better recipe.”

Lang said most commonly competitors with a better and fresh offer took a big chunk of business and these brands found it had to come back from that.

“If a business has built a reputation on things such as $20 all-you-can-eat buffett – and if that is what they are known for, it is really hard to change that. You have to put a lot of marketing muscle, such as advertising and money, behind that to change perceptions.”

That was often where brands went wrong, he said.

Marketing had changed and moved away from “marketing to” towards “marketing with”, he said.

“People like to buy things like baby clothes not only for what they do, they keep the baby warm, but also for what they mean; what amazing lunchtime conversations you can start up if you rave about something you have bought at Pumpkin patch, nobody is going to be interested in that, so it is really important for us as consumers to have interesting stories to tell.

“If you are a business that is easy to talk about like baby clothes, you’ve got to be online, and you’ve got to be smart in your use of digital marketing.

“If someone discovers a new kind of cool store that is maybe local or uses hemp and sustainable and the whole brand builds itself on that; I think that is something people are really receptive to.”

In fashion and the discretionary retail space, it was hard for a brand to stay on top forever, Lang said.

“People like talking about clothes, and they like to see where the best places are and what good they are doing for the planet, and I think if you are traditionally positioned in people’s minds as really good clothes and reasonable price, that’s great but people are looking for the next step.

“Some people are happy to go to mass retailers and have something that has been manufactured possibly by the millions for cheap, but there are lots of people who think purchases are a reflection of themself and their lifestyle and want something better for the planet and has a story to tell.”

Georgie Pie

Georgie Pie established itself as a Kiwi favourite in the 70s and 80s, with a lot of hype swirling around its pie shops built, but that concept disappeared as it ran into financial difficulties. McDonald’s NZ bought Georgie Pie to take them out of the market in 1997.

McDonald’s relaunched Georgie Pie in 2013 and some of its pies such as the Steak Mince and Cheese were added to its menu throughout New Zealand. But in 2020, the burger giant axed the pies following dwindling sales, citing lack of demand.

Wilkinson put that down to the type of product largely falling out of favour as consumers had increasingly become more health conscious and opted for pastry alternatives. And not even the big guys taking over could keep the brand that had fallen out of favour relevant.

Georgie Pie first opened in 1977, the brainchild of Tom Ah Chee – who also opened New Zealand’s first supermarket in Otahuhu in 1958.

Lang said small family-operated businesses and brands were often at the most risk of being left behind as markets and trends changed, as they were typically closely controlled, not run by the best business people and by those proud of what they had created and did not want to steer away from that, said Lang.

“The only constant is change and all brands have to change, continuously evolve. It doesn’t matter what market you are in or which end of the market you are at … you have to adapt because people’s taste and preferences change.”