Rice Refrigeration Limited

Rice Refrigeration Limited was a company in Southland, New Zealand operating a well known appliance retail chain known as Rices. Rice Refrigeration started out as far back as the 1950's with the original store in the Cambridge Place Arcade in Invercargill.

Sale to Smiths City

On September 27 1999, Rice Refrigeration was sold to Smiths City. It was announced following the sale that 13 jobs would be made redundant and later that Rice Refrigeration owed over NZ$1million to its creditors, however its customers owed Rice Refrigeration over NZ $5million as Rice Refrigeration continued to handle customer accounts from customers who purchased items on hire purchase prior to the sale. Following the sale, all Rices stores were rebranded using the Powerstore brand name, however Southland stores were called Rices Powerstore. Powerstore is a chain of retail appliance stores operated by Smiths City. Unlike Smiths City, Powerstore only sell home appliances where Smiths City also sell furniture and camping equipment.

Stores

The original store was located in the Cambridge Arcade in Invercargill and a second store known as the Annex Complex or Mega store was operated on Mersey Street in Invercargill. There was also a third Invercargill store in the Trust Bank arcade (now the SIT Arcade) up until 1993. Gore had one Rices store on the main street. Following the sale of Rice Refridgeration to Smiths City the store in the Cambridge Arcade was closed down leaving just the Annex Mega store in Invercargill, this store was given a major revamp in 2000.

Rices Expo

Every year since 1984 Rices have ran their annual Expo at the Ascot Park Hotel in Invercargill, this is typically held in September. The Expo is the largest in Australasia and normally runs for 3 days. After Rices was sold to Smiths City the Rices Expo was continued however it is now known as the Powerstore Expo.