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Rouge Living – New kids on the block are USA bound
Submitted by chloe on 12 March 2010 - 11:51am
Founded in 2004, Rouge Living, an Australian décor and home wares company
continues to impress.
After four short years, the brains behind the company – three Melbourne
businesswomen: Tara Jarrett, Evelyn Bourel and Wendy Williamson, have taken the business to a multi-million dollar turnover, and impressed the likes of Myers and David Jones to now supply the exclusive “Admire” branded soft furnishings to Myer ahead of more recognised imported brands.
This exclusive range was launched at the “Three weeks in New York” event Myer
hosted May 12 to June 01 2008.
Recently Rouge Living was named a finalist in the Federal Government Austrade
“Export Idol 2007/8” competition, designed to identify, recognise and support
promising Australian wholesalers to export into the USA. This recognition has
already opened doors in the US market with the likes of Wal-Mart, Target and Barnes & Noble.
Industry accolades such as Gift and Homewares Australia (GHA) “Best Stand
Awards” have also been awarded to Rouge Living for their excellence in
display/presentation at national trade fairs in 2005 and 2006.
Starting in Tara’s garage, Rouge Living attribute their rapid growth primarily to acting big, standing tall when in fact they were only small,“ We didn’t want to look like we were new, we wanted to look like an established business” explains Tara.
Significant funds were attributed early to branding and to other areas where they were exposed to their target customers.
The strategy worked so well people often questioned whether we had bought the distribution rights of another company” Evelyn recalls.
Rouge Living have also evolved their business strategy from initially being product focussed, developing only products that they identified, to now being more customer focussed, developing products based on major retailer briefs.
About Rouge Living
Based in Glenhuntly Road, South Caulfield Rouge Living brings the style and
elegance of European decors to life, minus the luxury price tag. Focused around simple and classique’ designs, collections are developed locally and either made overseas, or the fabric imported for final manufacture in Australia.
Specialising in bed-linen, soft furnishings, lighting, French paper and home decorator pieces, Rouge Living brands can be found in major and independent retailers in Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia and soon to be Dubai and the USA.
Rouge Living: Charming soft furnishings, décor and giftware.
Rouge Living brings warmth, style and elegance to any home.
Rouge Petite: Fun and lovely children collections.
Rouge Petite offers coordinated and styled decors for the “Petits” areas in the home.
Admire: Affordable style
Admire is an exclusive brand developed for Myer Retail Store by Rouge Living.
Behind the name
Tara, Evelyn and Wendy together make a formidable team -their varied backgrounds,strengths and passions mix wll.
Tara Jarrett, entrepreneurial in nature, oversees the total operation and leverages all she’s learnt from owning and building businesses over the past sixteen years. Experienced not only in business management, Tara’s talents and passions also extend into design and home decorating.
“I have always had a passion for design and in creating and finding beautiful things. I come from a family of creative people – my father is an artist and I spent my childhood touring through art galleries and exhibitions,” explains Tara.
“After years of travels, and being inspired by beautiful and unique homewares and decorator products from around the world, starting Rouge Living from scratch provided a means to earn a living from something I really love.”
Evelyn Bourel heads up the creative and product development team, having lived in Paris and Europe photographing the collections of the likes of Christian Dior and Jean-Paul Gaultier, both on and off the catwalk - design and style is in her blood.
Fluent in three languages, French, Greek as well as English, Evelyn is very proud of what Rouge Living has managed to achieve in such a short time. “Whilst inspired by the shapes, forms and textiles of Europe we haven’t simply bought from there and shipped it back. We play a major role in designing what makes up our ranges,” says Evelyn “And we will continue to do so, as refining the look is important for it’s success here,” “It will be interesting to see how our looks will be accepted in the new markets
such as USA that we are looking to break into.”
Wendy Williamson, with post graduate qualifications in marketing, heads up Rouge’s sales and marketing. Accustomed to developing businesses internationally whilst working for Kodak and other blue ribbon brands, including iconic retail brand Mitre 10, Wendy has the challenge of developing the strategies to take Rouge Living on its next growth phase.
“Like Tara and Evelyn, I too love the concept of earning a living from something I am naturally interested in and have an appreciation of and love for,” Says Wendy.
“One of the other things I love about Rouge Living and my involvement in it is the opportunity it has provided to be satisfied and proud of my professional achievements without compromising my family life and my time with them. Gone too is the office politics that are a huge part still of corporate culture.”
Adding to the workload of these three women as they strive to continue to bring accessible stylish designs to life and grow their business are, between, them their eight children all under 10 years of age!
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