Sampson's only surviving brother, William Foot Stuttaford had taken his young wife to Canada in 1857 but after her death a year later, it was decided that he should join his brother in Cape Town. He arrived at a time of rapid expansion and even with him on the team, Samson Stuttaford needed others he could trust to help him drive the business forward.

The brothers were joined by William Thorne (later to become Sir William Thorne), an enterprising young man from Pembroke who brought with him his experiences in the drapery business, gained while he worked at Harvey Nicholls in London. Sampson Stuttaford and William Thorne were to become friends and highly successful business partners.

Those early years weren't always easy but the three men understood the needs of their customers, worked hard to see they were satisfied and so Plymouth House quietly prospered. But in 1867, diamonds were discovered near the northern frontier of the Colony and  from then on, the prosperity of Cape Town, together with that of Sampson and William Stuttaford  and William Thorne, was guaranteed.

There followed an amazing period for these young entrepreneurs. In 1872, Sampson went to Kimberley and before long "S. R. Stuttaford & Co" began to deal in diamonds. They bought up a prime corner site in Cape Town on which their flagship department store still stands and they devised a new contract between them so that the partnership could operate both in South Africa and in London.

Sampson Stuttaford had realised early on that, as very little manufacturing took place in South Africa, if they wanted to grow their department store business, most of the goods they stocked would have to be bought in and someone would have to see to it that they were of the very highest quality. He returned to England to control the buying end of his business, making only occasional visits to South Africa from that time on. He can be found in the 1881 Census living with his wife and children (the eldest of whom were born in the Cape Colony)  in Streatham at a house he called Paarl*. His eldest son Richard, who one day would succeed him as head of his business empire, was then just 10 years old.

"We shall be glad to receive diamonds as a remittance. We occasionally buy a few small stones, only perfect specimens, weighing from half carat to five carats each - or if you sent us a few, we would sell them either in Cape Town or forward them on to England to Mr. S. Stuttaford and sell them there."

After the diamonds came the discovery of gold in the Transvaal. This time, it was William Thorne who travelled up to the gold fields to assess the situation. Was this another opportunity for Stuttaford & Co? He couldn't decide if the outlook was good or not, thinking that perhaps the gold deposits would soon run out. He decided Stuttaford & Co would not make any investments at that time.