Preludes & Feuds

Not many family businesses survive for over one hundred and forty years with four generations of family ownership, but Lewis Eady has. The Lewis Eady story is the survival saga of a business involved in a very product-specific retail sector: the musical instrument retail industry.

During its lifetime, it has endured two world wars, the Depression of the early 1930s, a perpetual cycle of economic fluctuations and crises, changing government policies, variable interest rates and inflation, as well as a multitude of dynamic social and cultural influences, and advances in technology. Lewis Eady's also had to contend with fierce competition in the music instrument marketplace, but in particular, competition from four other rivalrous Eady family-owned music businesses.

The name Lewis Eady is synonymous with the history of music and entertainment in New Zealand. The story begins with the factors that influenced the family to emigrate to New Zealand, describes how Lewis Eady became involved in the early music retail and entertainment scene in Auckland, and the ways in which the company developed its ability to adapt in order to survive to the present time.