Second generation Harry Kershaw. Photo: SUPPLIED
This month marks 150 years of business for a Wairarapa store that's been in the hands of one family for four generations.
Martinborough's Pain and Kershaw traces its origins to the late 19th century with a hawker who travelled the region on horseback.
At the turn of the 20th century, Pain was joined by John Kershaw. John's great-grandson Conor Kershaw runs it today.
Conor and his father David told Saturday Morning that there was never any expectation to "join the family firm", but they all made the decisions out of their own accord.
"There was never any sort of talk of it... I remember thinking to myself, 'god, I've got to get out of this place if I can because it was fairly dismal times for farming and the firm was a challenging place,"says Conor.
"As an eight or nine-year-old I was pretty determined to leave town and not be involved in the firm
"It wasn't until my early 20s that the light bulb went on... I was studying business down in Dunedin and... thought yep, this could be a career for me."
David says he was very relieved by the news.
"[Conor] said to me, 'I'll be going overseas for two years dad and when I come back I'm going to kick you out.
But David admits it follows a pattern as he never intended to run the store, or his father before him who had planned to go into farming after the war.
"My father rang me up and said that he needed help to run the shop Sentinnel in 1973 for six months, that's all he wanted me for.
"So I agreed and 40 years later I retired."
David says Martinborough changed.
"It became such a wonderful place to live in and we saw all the vineyards arrive and the firm got stronger and it's been an enjoyable 40 years."
It has not been smooth sailing for the decades old store though which has survived the serious economic hardship of two world wars.
The birth of the store began through George Pain, who was the founder of the store and would ride around the coast and take orders for clothing, predominantly.
He would go to Wellington, buy the goods from wholesalers and ride back to deliver orders and collect payments.
But as the country developed, Pain realised that there were more and more people who needed food, so he switched his order-taking to edible goods.
The entrepreneur set up shop in what was Waihinga at the time.
"My grandfather was employed then to help run the first little store in Waihinga and do the bookkeeping for groceries and his business," says David.
The store also survived the earthquakes in 1942, although the old facade tilted off and had to be pulled down.
It then traded for six years without glass because all of Europe needed it.
"We had to trade with wooden shutters for six years," says David.
And as for keeping the store in the family, Conor says it is looking promising.
"We're carrying on with the third, fourth scenario where we don't really talk about it much.
"Our youngest daughter May she's certainly showing a little bit of interest which is quite amusing, how she brings that up into the conversation as an eight-year-old."
