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When
E J Paxton (I) an optometrist opened his optometric
business in 1908, little did he know that his son
(also an optometrist), grandson (the current John
Paxton) and great grandsons would carry on the
family business now in its 100th year.
Originally operating as E.J. Paxton Opticians in
King Street Sydney the flourishing business
purchased a number of City buildings in increasingly
important locations and in the 1950's purchased a
building in George Street Sydney near Wynyard. The
optometric firm was one of the largest in Australia
employing approximately 10 optometrists and over 50
staff in the Paxtons Optical Lens Grinding Factory.
In 1957 the firm diversified to include a new
exciting Photographic Store right opposite Wynyard
Station. The current John
Paxton (III) joined the firm in 1965 assisting his
father John (II) in running the business.
Unfortunately John's father died in 1972 at age 62
and the young John Paxton took over the reins of the
business at the young age of 23. Since those early
days John has expanded the business with his wife
Marcia to include their Flagship City Store (300 sq
meters) as well as suburban stores at Westfield
Bondi Junction, Chatswood, Hornsby & Parramatta and
AMP centres at North Ryde and Brookvale.
Paxtons stores have a full range of Digital Compact,
DSLR and Video cameras as well as a substantial
range of accessories and Digital Photo Frames.
Paxtons also have in-house Kodak Express Digital
Mini Labs in all stores, as well as HP Photo Centres
in a number of their stores. They also offer
Transfer to DVD, Canvas Printing, Camera Repairs and
a range of other services.
Paxtons continues to be successful in the market
place always looking for new opportunities joining
Camera House as an Alliance member in 2006.
Paxtons run Digital Camera Courses, Video Camera
Courses and walking photographic tours and also
provide one on one camera training.
Currently Paxtons employees over 80 sales and office
staff with many of our staff being with us over for
10 years. Ron Boyce worked for Paxtons for over 40
years originally as The Manager of the Hornsby store
and then as General Manager for many years and was a
fantastic asset to Paxtons. Ron has since retired
and remains active as a member of the volunteer fire
brigade amongst other interest.
John Paxton (III) has been in the Photographic
Industry for more than 48 years. Starting in the
business while he was still at school doing
deliveries around town for his father in long socks
and his school uniform.
John has been Territorial Vice President of PMA
Australia three times, has been secretary of PMA
Australia for many years and also a Director of PMA
USA.
John has also been awarded the converted Golden
Tripod award for his many years of services to the
photo industry, Awarded the PMA Distinguished
Service Award and Paxtons awarded PICA Photo Dealer
of the Year Award for 2008.. John is still passionate about the
business and says "I couldn't have done it without
the support of all our loyal customers over the past
100 years which I would like to thank. The industry
continues to change with a number of competitor
stores which have closed in the past few years.
Times may have changed but the basic philosophy of
serving the needs of photographers hasn't. At
Paxton's we believe in catering to the long term
needs of customers. We're not out to just sell
someone a camera and forget about them if they run
into problems. Our interest is to provide the right
kind of camera gear and then help the user get the
most out of it. John's motto is "Enjoy your
photography" |