Self-made giant of the grocery business
John Hall grocer b January 20, 1924 d October 5, 2018
John Hall was a giant of the grocery industry for many decades. But while his selfmade business style was the thing of legend inside the industry, he was mostly unknown to the public, even though many millions of New Zealanders have enjoyed foods from the two companies of which he was the main driving force.
Any baker or appreciative consumer of homemade scones, Christmas puddings, cakes and biscuits will undoubtedly have eaten some of the dates, raisins, sultanas, cranberries and nuts imported by James Crisp Ltd. Likewise, many kitchens and lunchboxes will have contained some of the many snacks produced by Tasti Products.
John Hall, who has died aged 94, was ahead of his time. He made the most of his opportunities. From 1957, he turned food ingredients importer James Crisp into the brand specialist it is today, representing manufacturers of many iconic groceries in promotion, high performance sales, merchandising, logistics, and warehousing.
As well as servicing Foodstuffs and Woolworths NZ, it promotes and sells private label products and bulk ingredients to food manufacturers in New Zealand and Australia. Alongside this, it maintains its original business as an importer and supplier of ingredients.
John Hall’s other major contribution to the industry was Tasti Products, which started life as a maker of crystallised ginger, glace´ cherries and peel. Under his direction it was the maker of one of New Zealand’s first muesli bars in the 1970s – the iconic Snak Log – and is now the country’s biggest
manufacturer of muesli bars.
It’s a testament to his endurance that he was able to weather challenging conditions through his career to build the two companies – conditions such as World War II, rationing, disease epidemics, government-imposed import bans, tax rates of 66 per cent, and rampant inflation.
He was known as a people person, exemplified by this quote from his autobiography: ‘‘I worked out that it was better to spend, say, 30 shillings on another carton of beer and consume it with people of good standing and good company, rather than hike off to the savings bank with it, then mope in my spare time.’’
And among his many pearls of business advice, as relevant now as it was then: ‘‘Don’t ever take on debt to a percentage level that would permit the lender to redirect your business.’’
John Hall was born in Riverton, in Southland, one of seven children, and schooled in Dunedin. He recalled from age six having a keen interest in the effects of the Depression of the 1930s, including when Wardell’s, the leading grocery store with its ‘‘big old counters, high shelves, and cheeses’’, was ransacked by desperate workers.
Life was difficult for a large family, particularly when a construction firm failed, leaving his father, a contractor, £400 down. ‘‘Money was desperately short. Father didn’t pay the grocer . . . for four months.’’
Although poor, the family was rich in spirit and attitude, and nothing short of perfection was good enough. John recalled an environment in which the children felt they could achieve great things if they wished to.
In 1939, aged 15, he got a job as office junior at clothing retailer Bing Harris & Co, for 15 shillings a week. It’s hard to imagine such an extreme transformation for the current generation.
On a Friday he got off the tram in school shorts and on the following Monday he was in trousers, long coat and a hat. Being in the clothing business, hats were compulsory. His first was a gift from his employer – ‘‘a blue felt with medium-width brim’’ – and cost 54 cents.
He was aware that his family disapproved of him leaving school so early and, in an early example of making the most of his opportunities, he went to ‘‘night Tech’’ to study book-keeping three nights a week.
His uncle, James Crisp, who had moved James Crisp Ltd to Auckland, wrote that if he had it in mind to be a successful businessman then his old firm, Wright Stephenson & Co, would be an excellent training ground.
Though there were no vacancies at the time, the company would a year later become a stepping stone in John’s career.
It was there, he said, that he realised he had to work hard to stand out above the sons of the department and branch managers ‘‘as the logical choice for the next rung up the ladder’’.
At age 16, on the declaration of war, he joined the Territorials, despite the legal age being 18. In 1942, when all 18-year-old boys were called up for service, he was made a lance corporal because he had previous experience.
A year later, annoyed that he wasn’t seeing much action, he wrote to the Air Department to say his ‘‘war services would be much better employed in the Army than sweeping out the Sergeants’ Mess ’’.
He served in Noumea, Guadalcanal, and Bougainville.
After the war, he rejoined Wright Stephenson, before moving to Auckland to start a sole-trader business as a wholesale grocery merchant, trading with stores such as Farmers Trading, Henry Berry, LD Nathan, Foodstuffs, Bond & Bond, and NZ Loan & Mercantile.
In 1957, his uncle offered him a job, and later a partnership at James Crisp. Expansion was stymied by the imposition of the contentious suspension of all imports by the Nash Government, but the company survived.
It was at James Crisp, as business later flourished, that Hall had his first contact with Tasti Products, soon working on sales initiatives that would make them a force in groceries, and leading to his acquiring them in 1965.
Throughout his career, John Hall had by his side his wife, Judy (nee Kariatiana), a doctor who was one of the first female anaesthetists of Ma¯ ori descent.
Their three sons are all in the businesses: Richard and Henry jointly manage James Crisp, and Simon is executive chairman of Tasti – John having made sure they got there by their own skills and hard work, as he had done.
– By Katherine Rich, chief executive, New Zealand Food & Grocery Council.