Whitcombe & Tombs

Whitcoulls is a major national bookstore, stationery, gift, games & toy store chain in New Zealand, formerly known as Whitcombe & Tombs. It has 56 stores nationally. Whitcombe & Tombs was founded in 1888, and Coulls Somerville Wilkie in 1871. The companies merged in 1971 to form Whitcoulls.

Coulls Somerville Wilkie had its origins in Coull Bros, founded in Dunedin in 1872 by brothers Thomas, William, and James Francis Coull. A printing and publishing company, it operated from Crawford Street to the south of the city centre.. Through merger and partnership, its name changed several times before becoming Coulls, Culling & Co. Ltd., a name under which it traded from 1902 until 1922. The Culling in the company's name was Thomas Culling, regarded as the ‘father of printing in Otago’, whose business work extended to the founding of several newspapers, notably the Otago Witness.

In 1922, Coulls, Culling & Co. merged with J. Wilkie & Co., becoming Coulls Somerville Wilkie, a name under which it operated until 1971. J. Wilkie was founded in the early 1870s by James Wilkie, and bought by William George Somerville in 1894. Originally a stationer and bookseller, J. Wilkie & Co. operated from Princes Street until its amalgamation with Coulls, Culling & Co. in 1921.

Whitcombe & Tombs began in 1882 in Cashel Street, Christchurch, as a partnership between a teacher of French who had become a bookseller, George Hawkes Whitcombe, and printer George Tombs.

In 1883 the company was among the first registered under the Companies Act 1882. It had market dominance for several decades. Thousands of schoolchildren were taught with the aid of Whitcombe's Progressive Primers and later enjoyed Whitcombe's Story Books such as The Adventures of Hoppity Bobtail.

The company, in common with most companies, did not have a completely trouble-free relationship with employees. A court judgment Whitcombe & Tombs Limited v Taylor (1907) 27 NZLR 237 stated the principle that "a well established custom or practice may become part of a contract" (as noted by the Court of Appeal of New Zealand in CA246/03, nearly a century later, despite half a dozen intervening changes of employment law).

In 1971, Whitcombe & Tombs merged with Coulls Somerville Wilkie to become Whitcoulls, and has since been sold several times. It now operates as a retail chain only.

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