Meet The Maker - RAAD
The marvelous Matt & Bec from RAAD were generous enough to let us in on what drives their phenomenally fragranced home and body care products. If you haven't already, we highly recommend coming in store to catch the scent of their products, but fair warning, you might get hooked!
- Tell us a little about who you are (background and or passions) and what you do…
RAAD® is a family business sprung from our desire to help customers live a RAAD® life.
We’re passionate about making life simpler, kinder, more creative and filled with joyful moments. Living by these values forms a RAAD® life, it's what we instill in our family and it’s what drives us to create our addictively fragranced, empathetically crafted, formulations for home & body.
- What led you to creating RAAD and your amazing products?.
RAAD® began when our second child was born two months early, life was turned upside down and cleaning became super important (germs could have been dangerous to our little one). With design backgrounds behind us and an increased need to clean, we decided to create our sensory pleasing, future-friendly range of cleaning products which is now extended to all facets of home life. We think design can and should inform everyday life, so we’ve crafted the RAAD® experience this way and focused on simplifying banal tasks and making them meaningful choices.
- Which gorgeous corner of Aotearoa do you live in and what is your favourite part of living there?
We live in Te Atatu Peninsula, Auckland, with our two daughters. We adore it here. We both grew up in small towns in the North Island and for us, this little Peninsula is like a small Kiwi town nestled beside the city. We can walk to school and kindy, to the park, cafes or Refill Nation, it has all we need.
- Share one of your most treasured moments working in your business so far…
It’s great working together. Matt works on the business full-time and Bec does too, in between another role, which gives us a good balance. We like how our business goals reflect our family goals and each success affects us all. Bec loves the fragrance development part the most, it’s a particular passion and enjoys the creativity of it and how something new comes together each time.
- What is your favourite RAAD product and why?
The Surface Spray is Bec’s favourite. It’s probably the fragrance experience of it really. That you can be doing a task but the scent adds pleasure so something that would otherwise be monotonous. It’s gentle on natural surfaces, but effortless cleans and shines. She loves the power of the trigger bottle too!
- As a small NZ business, what has been your biggest hurdle to overcome?
Minimum order quantities. When you’re starting out you don’t want to outlay too much on stock, or be holding too much for too long. We work really hard to manage our stock but still be able to widen our product offering to provide an increased level of solutions to our customers.
- How are you celebrating Matariki this year?
We’ll be celebrating with some of our local Te Atatu Peninsula friends, hopefully with clear weather to get out into the evening a bit. We were lucky enough to have a traditional celebration last year which was very memorable, it will be nice to keep building on that experience with the kids.
- With Matariki being the start of a new year, what's a skill or goal you want to accomplish this coming year?
Bec has been trying some new creations in the kitchen. RAAD is utilised in many, beautiful restaurants so we often get the chance to visit when we’re creating content or to just enjoy a meal. Taking that food inspiration home has been fun and offers a chance to be creative with something the whole family can enjoy.
- Apart from working with rad businesses like Refill Nation, what do you put into practice to be a sustainable business?
Sustainability is a huge part of our business. We talk about RAAD® being “empathetically crafted” and for us that means ensuring every decision begins with an empathetic approach, thinking about the impact and the opportunity for every link in the chain; our customers, manufacturing and supply partners and for the planet. We use future friendly materials such as glass and ceramic instead of plastic, also our packaging is made from recyclable and biodegradable materials. Also all our refill products including the 5L containers our refilleries use can be sent back to us at no cost to be cleaned, sterilised and recirculated.
Bring in your own bottles for refilling with us, or pick up a spray or pump bottle in store with us for refilling over and over.