In 1934 LC Rolls was General Manager of Williams and Kettle, a stock and station agency and general merchant of 50 years standing with branches throughout the east coast of the North Island.

Headquartered in Napier, three years into recovery from its massive earthquake Mr Rolls was responsible for building the company’s new premises on the waterfront at Port Ahuriri, where capacity for up to 30,000 bales made it the Southern Hemisphere’s largest woolstore.

Fast forward 86 years to this spring, and the end of the ‘Number Four’ building’s use as a woolstore. Purely by coincidence the last bale of wool carted out of the store was taken by Bruce Rolls, grandson of LC. Now semi-retired, Bruce has continued a fine family tradition of working for Williams and Kettle, which became part of PGG Wrightson in 2005.

“My grandfather started as a 14 year old and worked for the company for 32 years. At the time many people thought he was mad for building such a big store, though it more than justified itself as the years went on. My father Bob Rolls also worked for Williams and Kettle, giving 45 years of service, and with my tenure, across the three generations we have put in a total of 114 years between us,” says Bruce.

Williams and Kettle’s Number Four building now belongs to Big Save, operating as their distribution warehouse for the upper North Island.