George Waldemar Skellerup (14 February 1881 – 5 June 1955) was a New Zealand businessman, company director and industrialist.
7-628: Skellerup is a New Zealand–based manufacturer of industrial and agricultural rubber products. The company, then called Para Rubber Company, was founded by George Skellerup in 1910 when he opened his first retail shop in Christchurch and now employs over 800 people in New Zealand, Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States and China. The brand is considered iconic by many New Zealanders, being
14-674: A leading producer of gumboots . "Jandals," the common name for flip-flops in New Zealand , is a trademark of Skellerup. In 1969, Skellerup was the founding sponsor of the Young Farmer of the Year competition, a relationship that lasted 29 years. In 2015, its product lineup includes a variety of agricultural components and products for the dairy industry, such as milk liners and livestock health management products. Skellerup also manufactures industrial products to assist with hydraulics, fluids, waterproofing, and water pumps. As of December 2015, Skellerup
21-718: The stock exchange in 1919, he had the capital to open further shops in both the North and South Island. Being hard hit by the Great Depression , he set up further companies in the late 1930s: the Latex Rubber Company (waterproof coats), the Empire Rubber Mills (milking machine components), and the Marathon Rubber Footwear (gumboots). He was denied a licence by the government for manufacturing car tyres. Caused by
28-624: The 13th and final child of Margaret Williamson and Peder Jensen Skjellerup, one of his siblings being the astronomer Frank Skjellerup . His father worked as a farmer before dying in an accident when Skjellerup was two years old. He moved to Fremantle in 1897 after leaving school aged 12 to be apprenticed to a surveyor. In Fremantle he worked under a Perth businessman before returning to Cobden in 1899. He soon left to make bicycle tyres for Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Company . In 1902 Skjellerup sailed to New Zealand with little money, in Dunedin claiming to make
35-590: The first New Zealand-made pneumatic bicycle tyres. Later he moved to Canterbury , eventually getting a job in Christchurch for the Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Company, who he previously worked for in Melbourne. Skellerup became self employed in 1910 with the manufacture of rubber products; his company was called the Para Rubber Company. By 1918, he had four retail outlets. After floating his company on
42-448: The shortages of World War II , he was asked by the government to reclaim rubber from old car tyres. There was not enough salt in the country for this venture and in 1942, he started the project to obtain salt from Lake Grassmere . He set up Skellerup Solar Salt Ltd, which later became Dominion Salt when the government took over the company. At his death in 1955, he was succeeded by his eldest son Sir Valdemar Skellerup (1907–1982) who
49-542: Was one of the components of the NZX 50 Index , with a market capitalisation of over NZD$ 240 million. Major investments in a new Dairy Rubberware factory in Christchurch were made to drive profit increases over 2016 and 2017. George Skellerup Skjellerup was born in 1881 in Cobden , a small town in Victoria , Australia, 200 kilometres (120 mi) south-west of Melbourne . He was
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