Benzie & Miller

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Benzie & Miller was a small Scottish department store chain that joined House of Fraser in 1958. It began in Fraserburgh in 1920 when William Benzie and James Miller merged their interests to form Benzie & Miller Ltd. The pair built on Benzie’s earlier drapery business, which started in Fraserburgh in 1886 as The Colosseum. Benzie expanded to Buckie briefly, then returned to Fraserburgh, where a new shop opened in 1896 and electric lighting was installed in 1898—the town’s first.

James Miller, an apprentice cabinetmaker who knew Benzie, joined the growing business and eventually ran a cabinetmaking operation. After World War I he rebuilt his business. In 1920 the two men expanded into a full department store and took over the Fraserburgh branch of Lerwick shoemakers Goodlad and Coutts, with Robert Henderson joining the board. The new store extended across neighbouring properties, reaching a 120-foot frontage with a large cabinetmaking workshop. It sold ironmongery, hardware, china and glassware, drapery, shoes and cabinetmaking, and included a first-floor tea room.

In 1924 Alexander Benzie, William’s son, became director in charge of menswear, and John B Miller (James Miller’s son) joined in 1931. William Benzie died in 1931, followed by James Miller in 1934. That year the store was expanded with a three-storey block adding 11,500 square feet. The business then opened stores in Inverness, Banff, Peterhead and Elgin.

During World War II the Fraserburgh store was destroyed by fire and rebuilt by the 1950s. In 1958 Baile Alexander Benzie sold the business to Hugh Fraser, chairman of House of Fraser. Benzie moved to Exmouth and ran the Thomas Tucker department store until his death in 1991. The Scottish stores continued under the Benzie & Miller name for a time, but Fraserburgh closed in 1968 (the building was demolished in 1985) and Peterhead was destroyed by fire in 1977 and not rebuilt. In the 1970s, as House of Fraser restructured, the remaining stores were folded into the Arnotts division and rebranded. The last Benzie & Miller store closed in Inverness in 2003.