"Founded in Wolverhampton in 1781, Briscoes began trading in New Zealand in 1862. The company supplied everything from picks and shovels for gold miners, iron to construct wharves, dynamite to open tunnels and reclaim land, as well as the crockery, lamps, and cutlery that adorned colonial homes. But Briscoes is much more than just a story of hardware. The red-tiled roofs that adorn thousands of New Zealand homes and businesses are Briscoes Marseilles roofing tiles. And it was Briscoes that supplied and fixed the magnificent pressed-steel ceilings that grace thousands of villas. By the 1980s, Briscoes was struggling. The company had passed through several owners, and after a string of losses, Briscoes future appeared uncertain. It was the 1990 purchase of Briscoes by retail entrepreneur Rod Duke that saw a revival of the old New Zealand company. Re-established as New Zealand's leading supplier of homewares, the company has since expanded tenfold in size, and in the face of a global recession remains one of the consistent success stories of New Zealand industry: something it has been doing for 150 years."--Book jacket.