Hope Gibbons Ltd.
Dixon Street, Wellington.
Branches in Auckland & Christchurch

Brand: CQ

Hope Gibbons Ltd, was a Wellington-based company of motor accessories importers who imported and distributed Stewart Warner radios from 1926. They also distributed CQ radios which were made by Radio Corporation of New Zealand Ltd. as their house brand from 1933 until 1937.

In 1905 the company was originally the J. B. Clarkson bicycle importing firm in Palmerston North. which the Gibbons family took a 50% share in 1905, and then full ownership in 1921 renaming the company Hope Gibbons Ltd. 

In 1926 the company held the agency for Stewart Warner radios as they were probably supplying Stewart Warner automotive instruments to the Colonial Motor Company which the Gibbons family held a controlling interest in at the time. [1]

The late John Stokes in The Golden Age of Radio in the Home states that in 1930 Hope Gibbons fitted  Stewart Warner series 950 chassis and speaker into a New Zealand-made console cabinet they became one of the first importers to adopt the practice of using locally made cabinets. Similarly, in 1931, locally made mantel cabinets were used, and in addition, locally made step-down transformers were fitted because the American chassis came equipped with 110-volt power transformers. Some sets were also fitted with locally made line filters. The effect of all this N.Z. content was enough for Hope Gibbons to advertise one 1932 model as “New Zealand Built”, a slight exaggeration, to say the least.

Another innovation was the combining of a 2-valve short-wave converter and a standard 6-valve chassis into a console cabinet in 1932, thus producing an early all-wave model.

For some reason, the use of New Zealand-made cabinets ceased after about 1936 at just about the time when most other importers were starting to use them to take advantage of the lower rate of duty applicable. [2]

After WW2 the company did not pursue the distribution of radios.

The company was owned and run by the Gibbons family until it closed in 1997.

[1] Truth 28 Oct 1926, Page 2.
[2] The Golden Age of Radio in the Home Page 126.
[3] Dominion 26 Aug 1930, Page 7.
[4] Northern Advocate 17 Mar 1934, Page2.