Happy 10th Birthday!

Hooray! This month, we celebrate our ten year anniversary! 

We are so delighted to reach this milestone and are grateful for all your support. 

So, I think it is time I told you a little of my story and where it all started. 

In 2013, having spent an adventurous ten years sailing around the world working in the super yacht industry, I was at a crossroads in my life.

I came home, met my soon to-be husband, and was wondering what to do next. 

After experiencing the extremes of both wealth and poverty whilst travelling the world, I decided to set up a fair trade toy business. 

Fast forward to three years later, and after building it into a successful online business I sold it.

Sailing the Seven Seas

I often get asked about how I transitioned from the fair trade business, to becoming a mum and starting Coastal Vintage?

"When I established the fair trade business, I learnt a lot! The 'what worked and what didn't work' of business. 

The reason I decided to set up that business was, after coming from an extremely opulent world of yachts, I wanted to do something that helped those less fortunate. 

I set up an online store selling educational toys for the childcare industry with products made and sourced from countries with certified fair trade organisations. 

I also grew the business to a team of eight people that travelled all around Australia, visiting childcare centres, and all the orders were dispatched from my Brisbane warehouse. 

However, there were two major issues. It was an extremely stressful time and both issues were related to staff. 

The first issue was one of the staff embezzled thousands of dollars and I then spent months and many sleepless nights to get that money back. 

The other issue was related to someone who was to become a partner who left to set up on her own. 

I didn't mind that she went out on her own, but she took my entire client database that I had spent years growing and used it to set up her business.

As a result, I lost the passion for the business. Today, I hold things a little closer to my chest."

My family

At the age of 39, I gave birth to my first child Emily, and I successfully sold the business for a profit and became a full time mum. It was time to take a break and eighteen months later, when I was 41, Sophie arrived in the world. 

We then moved from Brisbane to beautiful Noosa in 2013, and I discovered a love of coastal home decor and wanted to start a new business. 

A business that I could grow a bit slower and that tied in with my lifestyle with two little ones. 

After much research I realised that there were a lot of coastal homeware stores in Australia and that I needed a point of difference. 

With a family history of buying and selling antiques - both my Uncle and Nanna, and my cousins Charlie and Timothy Oulton in England, I realised no one was doing Coastal Vintage. And that is when I had my lightbulb moment and Coastal Vintage was born.

My Uncle's shop in Hale, UK in the 1970s, and our custom made box - a tribute to my Nana - Joan Norris

The money from the sale of the fair trade business went into our first home. 

I had four thousand dollars remaining and began by sourcing old wares coastal and nautical style. 

Initially, I sourced items locally from swap meets, antique dealers, community websites, word-of-mouth and from people who came to visit the warehouse and asked if we were interested in their late grandfather's shed full of stuff or someone wanting to sell a clam shell that had been in the garden for fifty years. This naturally progressed to sourcing items from overseas including old glass fishing floats from Japan, old maritime times wares from India and old lobster pot buoys from Maine, USA.  

Over a three month period I set up a website and started growing my social media pages. I worked on the business a few days a week.

I took all the website photos in a bedroom at home with an old SLR!

Even my little ones would help and I remember shipping these yellow oars all the way to California!

I did everything on my own that was required to run a business - photos, website, logo, shipping, buying, created my own painted oars & paddle line, painted life rings and other products, accounts and so on. As the business grew, I continued to put in the hours. 

Within eighteen months, people were coming to visit my shed at home. 

It was time to moved into a warehouse and I found one in the industrial estate and opened it two days a week while my girls were in childcare.

Inside the first warehouse

As the years went by, it progressed to three days, then five and half days a week and by year four, there were two employees and I was travelling overseas to source and ship containers back to Australia.

Every dollar made during those first two years was put back into the business. I never took out a loan and I didn't take my first wage until the summer of 2015.  

Fortunately, my husband Mark was able to support us both during this time.

The week we moved into a bigger space. It didn't take long to fill that space!

In 2019, the business had grown to a crew of seven on board. It was not only time to move into a bigger space but also re-brand. 

We moved a few doors down into a space two and half times bigger and also launched a new website, and turning over three times more than I had in the old warehouse.  Not only were we providing wares to home owners, but also hotels, cafes, restaurants and props for television and movie sets. 

Coastal Vintage 2023

After many retailers asked if they could also stock our wares, it was a natural progression to set up a wholesale business and in 2022 Coast Imports was launched. 

We now sell our wares to retail businesses around Australia and overseas and moved Coast Imports into a warehouse next door to Coastal Vintage. 

Unloading overseas containers outside our wholesale warehouse and sourcing overseas!

Going forward, I aim to continue to find and provide unique coastal and nautical home decor and furniture pieces. 

With the Crew - March 2023