Todd family patriarch Sir John Todd dies

Sir John Todd, who died yesterday at his home in Wellington aged 88, was the third member of the country’s top business family to be knighted.

The Todds, who built their business on motor vehicles and the oil industry, have been at or near top of the NBR Rich List since its inception in 1986.

In the latest edition, the family-owned business is valued at $3.16 billion and is unusual because successive generations have continued to expand their wealth through the Todd Corporation.

Sir John, who was made a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2012, was chairman of the corporation from 1987 until his retirement in 2011.

His father, Sir Desmond Todd, and his uncle, Sir Bryan, were also knighted.

Sir John joined the family business, then Todd Motors, in 1945 as worker on the assembly line. At that time it was making Chrysler and Rootes Group vehicles from imported kits.

Another interest was the Europa petrol brand, originally sourced from the Soviet Union and later sold to BP.

But the Todd family had a strong belief that New Zealand should develop its own sources of motor fuel, which resulted in its successive investment in the Maui gas field.

Todd Motors built the country’s largest and most modern motor vehicle assembly plant at Porirua and in 1987 sold it to Mitsubishi Motors.

Assembly activities ended in 1998 but the building continues to house a business park still carrying the Todd name.

Todd Corporation today is a diversified business that in addition to energy and mining interests spread around the world also ranges from telecommunications and large-scale residential property development to healthcare and winemaking.

From 1988, Sir John chaired the Todd Foundation, which handles the family’s generous philanthropic activities.

This has totalled some $59 million in today’s dollar terms, including $4.7 million donated just last year.

Support for the arts included sponsoring ballet, opera, the Festival of the Arts and the NZ Symphony Orchestra.

Two months after the Christchurch earthquake, the Todd Foundation had raised more than $1.8 million for post-recovery work.

Advice on business 
Sir John was a past president of the Wellington Manufacturers' Association and was a founding trustee of the Arts Foundation as well as a trustee of the Royal New Zealand Ballet, the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council and Volunteer Service Abroad.

In an interview with NBR in 2011, he said New Zealand’s ability to generate wealth would be helped by translating the “productivity” catch cry into something meaningful. His suggestions: provide a source of serious investment monies to put into building up capital resources; encourage the easing of constricting regulations; and better utilise embedded natural resources.

His advice to those who aspire to wealth creation is to have the courage to develop your ideas. “Just get stuck in – you may fail, but what the hell, you won’t succeed if you don’t try.”

The best piece of advice was one the Todd family enterprises have consistently embraced: “practise financial conservatism.”

While enterprise needs money, it pays to be prudent in your borrowing, Sir John said.

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