New Zealand wallpaper company Miss Lolo has now made Brisbane its permanent base, with its founder on a mission to brighten Australian homes and commercial spaces with big and bold designer wallcoverings.
Miss Lolo’s founder and creative director Tamzyn Adding founded the print-to-order wall product business in 2013 when she was working as a full-time fashion stylist.
The company has more than 40 luxe designs that are available in a range of adhesive options including ‘peel and stick’ and waterproof vinyl.
Adding told SmartCompany she would love to say there was a lot of foresight and consideration in picking Brisbane as Miss Lolo’s permanent base, but that wasn’t the case.
“We’d started dabbling with Miss Lolo in the Australian market in early 2023 and the initial response had been really positive,” she says.
“My husband and I knew that we no longer wanted to raise our children in New Zealand in the current economic and political climate, opting for bigger opportunities and a better lifestyle, so we decided on Australia.
“We knew it would need to be one of the three largest cities for the company to expand; so it was either Sydney, Melbourne, or Brisbane.”
Similarly, Adding says when she founded the business she didn’t start with a traditional business journey, or with a clear plan or any idea that a business was going to form.
“I started out upcycling retro furniture in super bold colours and patterns and it grew ridiculously fast across Facebook,” she explains.
“We had 30,000 followers within a month or so, then it was a case of, ‘Okay, how do I monetise this audience?”
Adding said breaking into Australian shores as an entrepreneur has made her realise it’s a very different energy and pace to business in New Zealand.
“The pace of business in Australia compared to NZ is a million times faster, which I have loved,” she says.
“I have a number of collaborations launching, from clothing to stationery, to bags, and am launching new product lines in 2024 that take Miss Lolo out of the home for the first time.”
Things were different on the other side of the Tasman, she says.
“In New Zealand, I think my perception of a company owner is one that I’m too opinionated, too noisy, too left-of-field, probably just too much in general,” she says.
“I was also told to, ‘stay in my lane, not show too much confidence’, and essentially be a little more ‘compliant’. Very much the classic tall poppy syndrome in full effect.
“I’d tried for years to both break into the commercial sector in New Zealand and get collabs off the ground with other companies and it was like trying to get blood out of a stone.”
Adding says she and her colourful brand have been welcomed with open arms by other Australian businesses.
“Upon arriving in Australia I have a hotel in Fortitude Valley I’m working on, I approached a bunch of businesses I was interested in collaborating with, and everyone I’ve approached has said yes,” says Adding.
“The willingness to be involved and the pace that people work here is very very different to New Zealand. I truly believe had I started the company in Australia we would be in quite a different position from where we are now.”
In Australia, Adding will also be collaborating with designer and mental health advocate Kasey Rainbow, as well as planning collaborations with Incy Interiors, Padtastic and Scribbler that will roll out in 2023.
Nine years after launching Miss Lolo, Adding says she has very clear strategies and marketing plans to further grow the business in the Australian market.
“Our focus over the next 12 months is brand recognition. We are still very much an unknown entity in the Australian market. So there is a lot of focus on marketing and advertising as well as collaborations with well-known Australian companies,” she says.
“We are also taking Miss Lolo out of the home for the first time and will be releasing limited-edition ranges throughout the year using our signature designs but in product ranges that we’ve never considered previously.
“When you sell wallpaper there are not a lot of repeat customers, so you’re forever spending to reach new customers, yet we have this large database who just love what we do, so the thinking was let’s produce a range of products to resell back to these Miss Lolo followers, reduce our client acquisition costs and increase our sales.”
