Former Turners chairman dies
Tony Gibbs, a leading New Zealand businessman and former chairman of Turners Auctions, has died after a period of ill health at the age of 72.
Born in Essex, England, and raised in Auckland, he received the Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2009 for services to business.
Gibbs was best known for his time at investment company Guinness Peat Group, where he worked with Sir Ron Brierley. However, he was also involved in several of New Zealand’s biggest businesses, including Vector, Tower, Wrightson, ENZA and Fletcher Forests.
He was also chairman of Turners & Growers and subsequently of Turners Auctions.
Gibbs led T&G Global for 16 years from 1995 to 2011, growing the company from a domestic fruit and vegetable seller to a significant player in the fresh produce industry.
He oversaw the “wildly successful” floating of Turners Auctions onto the share market in October 2002 after it was split off from the group’s fresh produce businesses. He resigned from the board of Turners in 2004.
His friend and fellow former Tower director Rob Flannagan described him as “a great New Zealander” and “a genuine human being”, reports the NBR.
Gibbs left school at 15 to go to sea, getting a job on a meat boat sailing from Lyttelton to England. He travelled the world before returning to London where he met his future wife Val while a management trainee for Army & Navy stores.
The couple moved to New Zealand, where Gibbs set up a sporting goods import-export business and later began investing in property and the stock market.
After retiring from corporate life Gibbs focused on his mandarin farm in Matakana.
Following a short battle with cancer, Gibbs – “a great family man” – died at home surrounded by family, including his wife Val, son Ant and daughter Charlotte.
