Rice Refrigeration Limited

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Rice Refrigeration Limited was a company in Southland, New Zealand operating a well known appliance retail chain known as Rices. Rice Refrigeration started out as far back as the 1950s with the original store in the Cambridge Place Arcade in Invercargill.

[edit] Sale to Smiths City

On September 27, 1999, Rice Refrigeration was sold to Smiths City. It was announced following the sale that 13 jobs would be made redundant and later that Rice Refrigeration owed over NZ$1 million to its creditors, however its customers owed Rice Refrigeration over NZ $5 million as Rice Refrigeration continued to handle customer accounts from customers who purchased items on hire purchase prior to the sale. Following the sale, all Rices stores were rebranded using the Powerstore brand name, however Southland stores were called Rices Powerstore. Powerstore is a chain of retail appliance stores operated by Smiths City. Unlike Smiths City, Powerstore only sell home appliances where Smiths City also sell furniture and camping equipment. Since 2004 the Rices name was dropped from branding with the Southland stores being advertised as Powerstore.

[edit] Stores

The original store was located in the Cambridge Arcade in Invercargill and a second store known as the Annex Complex or Mega store was operated on Mersey Street in Invercargill. There was also a third Invercargill store in the Trust Bank arcade (now the SIT Arcade) up until 1993. Gore has one Rices store on the main street. Following the sale of Rice Refrigeration to Smiths City the store in the Cambridge Arcade was closed down leaving just the Annex Mega store in Invercargill; this store was given a major revamp in 2000. In 2008 the Invercargill store was relocated to the corner of Gala and Leven Street in what used to be the workshop for T.R. Taylor (a Mazda car dealer). The new store is much smaller than the Rices Annex Complex but in a better location as it is closer to competing appliance stores.

[edit] Rices Expo

Every year since 1984 Rices have ran their annual Expo at the Ascot Park Hotel in Invercargill, this is typically held in September. The Expo is the largest in Australasia and normally runs for three days. After Rices was sold to Smiths City the Rices Expo was continued; however it is now known as the Powerstore Expo.