Tony Caughey: Smith and Caughey's chair on the 'tough' decision to close their Auckland department stores - Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive

Flagship Auckland department store Smith and Caughey's will close down next year, after 144 years.

This closure comes off the back of a 40 percent drop in revenue drop across their Queen Street and Newmarket stores in the past five years.

Chair Tony Caughey says they tried to find a way through the rough patch two years ago - but there was no solution.

"We really turned over every stone we could find to see if we could see a way through it. We had independent professional advisors in, we really worked hard to find a solution - we couldn't find one."

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