Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1889 - 1931), Saturday 28 February 1925, page 13


F. C. CATT STORES CLOSING.

Mr. F. C. Catt, the proprietor of the well-known F. C. Catt Stores. Rundle- street, is retiring from business, and in about six months' time his stores will be

closed. The property, which has a frontage of 84 ft, 10 in. in Rundle-street, is to be sold by auction in April, and Mr. Catt hopes to vacate the premises by the end of August. Mr. Catt's business career has been one of the most remarkable in the history of Adelaide. He came to the city when a lad of 16, full of hope and keyed up by a determination to succeed. He went into the warehouse of Messrs. Matthew Goode & Co., wholesale softgoods merchants, and remained with them for sixteen years. He then became manager of the Coliseum, a retail drapery establishment in Rundle Street, owned by Messrs. Charles Moore & Co. He had charge of that business for six years, but decided to launch out on his own account, and on February 20, 1905 he opened his shop on the site of hie present premises. He had little capital to begin with and had to start modestly. He secured the lease of one small shop, but his remarkable business ability won his establishment such wide popularity that he had constantly to enlarge. He got other leases from time to time until he had six in all. About nine years ago he bought the freehold of the premises for £600 a foot, but three years later he sold the site now occupied by the York Theatre for £I,239 a foot on the Rnndle-street frontage. Mr. Catt's success has been the result of boldness and enterprise, integrity and close application, allied with natural ability. When asked last night what he proposed to do after August he remarked, "I am looking forward to a long rest," He has been in the drapery business in all for 42 years, but is still a comparatively young man.