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Obituary: Sir John Todd

Posted on 31 July, 2015

Sir John Todd, who was the third member of the business family to be knighted, died at his home in Wellington on July 29 after a period of ill health. The 88-year-old, who was made a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2012, was chairman of the corporation from 1987 until his retirement in 2011. His father, Sir Desmond, and his uncle, Sir Bryan, were also knighted. After studying accountancy and commerce at Victoria University in Wellington, Sir John joined the family business through Todd Motors in the 1940s and worked on the assembly line in Petone. In 1968, he was appointed managing director. Todd Motors acquired the Mitsubishi franchise for New Zealand in 1970. Previously it had been a distributor and dealer for brands such as Ford, Commer trucks, Studebaker, Chrysler, Hillman, Humber and Peugeot-Talbot. It also held the David Brown tractor franchise from 1945-81. By 1980, the corporation was the biggest car company in New Zealand with the largest market share of any global Mitsubishi distributor. It exited the industry in 1987 by selling the assembly, wholesale distribution and retail business to Mitsubishi Motor Corporation of Japan. Assembly activities ended in 1998, but the building continues to house a business park still carrying the Todd name. Another interest the family business held was the Europa petrol brand, originally sourced from the Soviet Union and later sold to BP. But the Todd family had a strong belief New Zealand should develop its own sources of motor fuel, which resulted in its investment in the Maui gas field. From 1988, Sir John chaired the Todd Foundation, which handles the family’s philanthropic activities, which come in at about $59 million in today’s dollar terms and include $4.7m donated last year. Two months after the Christchurch earthquake, it had raised more than $1.8m for post-recovery work. Sir John was a past-president of the Wellington Manufacturers Association, a founding trustee of the Arts Foundation, and a trustee of the Royal New Zealand Ballet, the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council and Volunteer Service Abroad. In an interview with the NBR in 2011, he said New Zealand’s ability to generate wealth would be helped by translating the “productivity” catch-cry into something meaningful. His suggestions included providing a source of serious investment monies to put into building up capital resources, the better use of embedded natural resources, and encouraging the easing of constricting regulations. His advice to those aspiring to wealth creation was to have the courage to develop your ideas. “Just get stuck in – you may fail, but what the hell, you won’t succeed if you don’t try.” Today, the privately held Todd Corporation has diversified business interests of about $3 billion. In addition to global energy and mining interests spread, it also includes telecommunications, large-scale residential property development, healthcare and winemaking. It started life in a Central Otago fellmongery and wool-scouring plant, but moved into stock and station agencies as well as becoming a vehicle distributor and retailer in 1923.