S2 Ep2: Kate Cullwick and Prue Watson, Foxtrot Home
Linen loving sisters, Kate Cullwick and Prue Watson, hit on a winner with their online homeware business, Foxtrot Home, which has gained a huge fan following.
There’s nothing quite like climbing into a crisp, freshly made bed. Linen loving sisters, Kate Cullwick and Prue Watson, hit on a winner with their online homeware business, Foxtrot Home, which has gained a huge fan following.
Having decided they were keen to launch a business together, they knew two things for certain – it had to be homewares (a shared love) and online, due to their locations. With Prue living in Auckland for her corporate marketing job and stay-at-home mum Kate living in Central Hawke’s Bay on a sheep and beef farm, they knew the business needed to fit around their already busy lives.
“We felt there was a good space out there for people like myself who like to shop online but we’re rural and can’t get anywhere near the beautiful bricks and mortar stores you see around New Zealand. We thought it would be a great business idea to start something online that anybody can shop from. That was the seed idea,” Kate explains.
They knew it also needed to be a visual product in order to sell successfully online and photograph well for social media, as Instagram was really taking off when they launched Foxtrot.
The sisters, who grew up on the family farm in Gisborne, knew they wanted to do something in the homeware space. They tried many different products and it was when a supplier accidentally sent them a linen duvet sample instead of the tablecloth they were expecting, that they hit on the idea of fine French Flax linen.
Their beautiful stonewashed linen gives customers here and in Australia the chance to bring a bit of luxury to bedroom styling, without the hefty price tag. And it’s been a winner.
Only ever intending Foxtrot Home as a side hustle when they launched six years ago the business has grown exponentially, expanding to include wool blankets and throws and linen pyjamas, and Prue has given up her career in marketing to focus on Foxtrot fulltime.
“The philosophy going in was let’s see how this goes, it wasn’t like we were having to give up anything, it was on the side if you like, and we’ve been incredibly fortunate that this has worked out way better than we could have dreamed of,” Kate says.
“When we got to the first lockdown for Covid we decided to really give it a go in terms of making it our fulltime gig, certainly for me anyway,” Prue says.
Like many online businesses, Covid presented an opportunity for Foxtrot, though they did struggle to keep up with demand given they were importing the product, which became unreliable during the global pandemic. “We were well placed to grow the business.”
With both now working fulltime in Foxtrot, the sisters are living the linen dream, while still making it fit around their personal lives.
Kate says they knew the importance of building a brand as opposed to promoting a product, and that was a focus from the start. “I do believe that has really helped, we certainly do have an amazing product but certainly the brand was at the forefront from the start.”
Foxtrot Home is focused on good old fashioned customer service and the sisters have been careful to cultivate an online community, where their customers receive the personal touch, despite the fact they don’t actually meet them face-to-face. This has been intentional, and is a real point of difference for the Foxtrot experience.
Recently added to the offering are wool throws and blankets made from the lamb’s wool grown on Kate’s farm, and they have other exciting products in the works.
“The finest micron for knitting is the lamb’s wool, which gets taken off the lambs in summer, the Romney wool is blended with the crossbred, and it goes to WoolWorks in Napier…This year we had to increase our amount and sourced wool from our neighbours here in Wanstead and our other farm in Gisborne.
“The last two weeks we’ve been doing a massive push and have some, we think, pretty amazing ideas about where we will take it (wool). We’ve had some overseas interest, which is hugely exciting because it sounds fabulous and Prue and I love to travel. In our minds we are booking flights all over the world business class.”
Jokes aside, bringing strong wool to international markets and helping the industry in a small way is something the sisters are passionate about.
Show notes
Website: www.foxtrothome.co.nz
Facebook: @FoxtrotAtHome
Instagram: @foxtrot_at_home
Pinterest: @foxtrothome50
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