No Smoke Without Fire

NZ Herald: Hotel fire smokes out new men’s boutique

This week marks twenty-five years since a fire in the basement of Hotel De Brett nearly destroyed Crane Brothers before it had barely begun. The fire broke out on a dreary Sunday afternoon, the sort you get at the tail end of winter. By Monday, I surveyed the store - toddlers in tow, with another child on the way. The air reeked of smoke, the glass was blackened, and water was everywhere. We were just six months in, and everything we'd built was gone.

It was devastating, but I never considered walking away. The business wasn't going to be defined by what had been lost - it would be defined by how we responded.

The damage was significant - around a quarter of a million dollars of stock damage. Our insurance was average, the business-interruption cover offered a short runway, and legal battles loomed. We were fighting for our lives from the start. I was worried about keeping my small team employed and my family fed.

During that time I learned more than I ever wanted about de-ionisation, and about the hidden realities in the small print. Working remotely wasn't an option. People still paid by cheque, and we used a fax machine. Pressure came from everywhere. Yet we carried on.

The isolation of it all was real. Every decision sat squarely with me, and most had to be made quickly, often with imperfect information. Those choices shaped how I learned to run a business - decisive, sometimes hard, but always moving forward.

Within weeks we had a temporary site in Lorne Street - opened on Rob's birthday - stocked and trading. Chris had just started with us; the two of them have stayed by my side ever since. That period taught me hard lessons: how naive I'd been in business, how quickly risk and opportunity can shift, and how survival demands tough decisions.

I discovered qualities in myself I didn't know I had - often misread as arrogance or grumpiness. In truth, they were born of necessity: protecting both the business and the people in it. That responsibility for the people around me was repaid in loyalty and support, year after year.

The High Street store has had several iterations since then - all on the same site, the latest just twelve months ago to mark our 25th anniversary. This milestone, however, feels more relevant. That fire was harder than lockdown mandates and three recessions put together - but we endured.

Crane Brothers is about presentation; business is perseverance. Twenty-five years on, the lesson is clear - survival isn't enough. You have to stay relevant, plan for adversity, and be resilient.