Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 - 1995), Tuesday 5 March 1963, page 30


Marcus Clark's Have Grown For 80 Years

The late Mr. Henry Marcus Clark opened his first store— a two-window draper shop—at Newtown on February 1, 1883.

Within 19 years Mr. Clark had extended his original store and opened in North Sydney, Newcastle, Waverley and the Bon Marche store in Broadway.

By early 1900 the name

of Marcus Clark had spread

to Wollongong, Tamworth

and Dubbo.

In 1912 Mr. Henry Marcus Clark built a new furniture store in Central Square, and a year later opened a store at Lithgow.

After the death of Mr. Henry Marcus Clark in 1913, his son, Mr. Reginald Mar-cus Clark, guided the firm to further expansion during the next 40 years, despite two world wars and a depression.

Due to his outstanding citizenship and prominence in public life, Mr. Reginald Marcus Clark was knighted

in 1939.

After his death in 1953, he was succeeded by his brother, Mr. Roland C.

Clark.

54 Years

Of Service

Mr. R. C. Clark retired in 1962 after 54 years of service

with the firm.

Another son of the foun-der, Mr. George S. Clark, is now chairman of directors, and a grandson, Mr. Tim-othy Marcus Clark, is a com-pany director and controller.

The Marcus Clark organi-sation is proud that many of its top executives are under 35 years of age.

The Sydney store manager, Mr. R. Gray and the man-ager of the new Canberra store, Mr. F. Seaman, are

both 30.

The earliest Marcus Clark's main store was built in the early 1900s on the site of the historic "toll bar."

The company moved its headquarters in 1928 to the site of the present store,

which has acres of floor

space.

Marcus Clark's, since its foundation in 1883, has grown rapidly with Australia.

Just prior to Christmas last year the company opened a 1,000-car car park on the site of the old Glaciarium.

As well as opening the new

Canberra store, work is go-ing ahead on the rebuilding of the Newcastle store and larger additions are being

made in Adelaide.

It is interesting to note that in Mr. Henry Marcus Clark's days of establishing the now vast chain of 21 stores, the concept at the time was virtually to "put all one's eggs in the one basket."

Henry Marcus Clark pur-sued a middle course and broke new ground by em-barking on a policy of spreading his business over the widest extent of country possible.

It is quite evident now that this policy is the accepted trend with all major retail stores throughout Australia.