Business Passport
Business has tripled since Andrew McGregor and Garry Smith left corporate careers to run eco-friendly, educational toy company Artiwood – and they’ve travelled to all corners of the world to make it happen.
Andrew McGregor and Garry Smith had been partners in life for almost two decades when they decided to hunt for a business they could work on together. “We wanted to get off the corporate treadmill, leverage our skills and enrich ourselves rather than shareholders,” says McGregor, who’d been COO of a global tech marketing company, while Smith was a senior business analyst in the financial sector.
In 2015, after a three-year search, they found their dream company: Artiwood, an importer and wholesale distributor of traditional and educational toys, whose founder was retiring. “All Artiwood toys are made from natural materials, such as wood, rubber, cork and organic cotton: no plastic, no batteries.
It was a well-defined niche – sustainability and ethically sourced products – and had the right foundations for growth. The business today is more than three times bigger than when we acquired it.”
This growth has seen Artiwood relocate its warehouse four times and open a new showroom in Sydney but as McGregor reveals, success hasn’t come from staying put in the office...
Where: Sydney Hong Kong China
“Our toys are made by hand from natural materials. There are no assembly lines and plastic extrusion moulds. In the factories, the machines are merely tools. It’s the skill of the people involved that ultimately creates the value of these toys. With so much at stake, we regularly go into the factories to review them, always flying Qantas. It lets us see for ourselves that the toys are being produced ethically and the staff are well supported. Garry also advises Kinderfeets, our largest brand, on quality control improvements in its factories. By building these relationships in person, the factories look after us. They build our products with greater care because we’re not just names on an order. Our focus on personalised relationships is why we fly Qantas. On one China trip, in 2018, it was Garry’s 50th birthday as he flew home – the Business cabin crew noticed that and made him feel very special.”
Where: Sydney London
“Right before the pandemic hit we attended the London Toy Fair and secured Bigjigs Toys, now our third-largest brand and growing. They were looking for a new Australian distributor and we gave them a presentation about how we would refresh their brand in the market here. They said it made such an impact that they couldn’t let us leave without appointing us. It was the fastest appointment they’d ever made for a distributor in their 37 years. Garry and I used points we’d earned through Qantas Business Rewards to upgrade our Business tickets to First for the trip home, which increased our baggage allowance from four to six. We filled three suitcases with Bigjigs samples so we could take them back to exhibit at the Australian Toy Fair a few weeks later.”
Where: Sydney Melbourne
“We flew our team to Melbourne for the Reed Gift Fair in August. It’s the largest event we exhibit at and the first time we’d been able to be there in person since 2019. This was our most successful event ever. The value of sales we wrote was up 33 per cent over the 2019 fair, with orders from new customers up 54 per cent. For all of us, being able to connect personally with people and put a face to a name is invaluable. I book travel for all the staff together through our Qantas Business Rewards online account. As they are Qantas Frequent Flyers, they earn points individually as well as points for Artiwood. Plus, they get a Flyer Bonus of 250 points for every flight booked under our membership. We often use our Qantas Points to upgrade staff when they’re travelling interstate. It’s a simple gesture that acknowledges their value to the business and the impact travel has on their families.”
Where: Sydney London Nuremberg
“Earlier this year we flew to London for the Toy Fair and the following week to Nuremberg, Germany, for Spielwarenmesse, the industry’s largest international trade show. We go from morning to late at night for days on end. International trade shows are critical for us to meet our brand suppliers face-to-face, identify emerging global industry trends and assess the competitive landscape. We’ve flown the non-stop Perth to London route, which we love, but this time we included a weekend stopover in Singapore to help us adjust our body clocks. Because we know the dates of these events so far in advance, I set up alerts and when a great deal pops up, I’ll book Business tickets and immediately apply for an upgrade using points we’ve earned through Qantas Business Rewards. As business owners, we are usually working right up until we get in the cab for the airport so the Qantas First Lounge is an oasis where we decompress and centre ourselves before we set off on another intensive trip.”