Publisher Textiles: Telstra Business Awards

Publisher Textiles: Telstra Business Awards

Publisher Textiles was the winner of the New South Wales businessowner Micro-business award, and were also named the overall NSW Business of the Year. They are in contention to be named the National Business of the Year, which will be announced in Sydney on August 20.

The following four retail companies were named as state winners in the 17th annual Telstra Business Awards: Edible Blooms and The Trademan from South Australia, Sea to Summit from Western Australia and Brighton Hardware from Tasmania.

These businesses will now progress to the national Telstra Business Awards to be held in Sydney on August 20 and be in contention to share in $400,000 in cash and prizes.

Other retail companies Envirosax, Smartrider, Shieldcoat, Rapid Induct and Sassy Divas were also recognised for their achievements as finalists in the awards program.

State winners in the Telstra Business Awards will now go on to judging in the national finals with the Telstra Business of the Year to be announced on August 20.

Interview with Rhynie Cawood, the owner of Publisher Textiles

What does Publishers Textiles do?

Rhynie Cawood: Basically we have our own factory, or studio you could call it where we have screenprints, fabric and wallpaper. We have our own range of designs that Mark and myself have created and a lot of the artwork is created by hand, hand drawings. We do a lot of custom wallpapers and we also print for fashion. We have our own range of home wears and we are just starting to bring back our range of clothing - which is what we started the business with, which went to the side for a little bit- now it is coming back.


When did you star the business?

Rhynie Cawood: Our absolute start was about seven years ago, and for the first few years we rented a little space in a friends factory and we did markets - that is how we started. Mark was actually working somewhere else and I had just had my second child. So, during the week we would print, when he wasn't at work, then on the weekend we would do the markets and sell the clothing- that went really well for a while and then two years after we started doing that, about five years ago, we decided to take the next step and we rented our own space. There we setup a slightly larger scale factory so we can print. We have 40 meters of table and it is running like a bit of a factory really.


Who motivated you to begin the business?

Rhynie Cawood: We did, we motivated ourselves. It was purely an outlet for what we wanted to do. I came from fashion and Mark came from screenprinting and it was something we really, really enjoyed doing. We both liked drawing and we had worked in the industry and what we wanted to do we couldn't do while working for other people. I think, it was a jump in the deep end, but we believed in it. Even everyone said we were mad- we really believed it was possible and thought 'let's give it a go'. There actually wasn't that much to loose as we started on a credit card, so it wasn't like we put our house on it. We wanted to give it a go and it worked!


So far what do you think your biggest achievement has been through Publishers Textiles?

Rhynie Cawood: Definitely winning the Telstra business award.


How does it feel to be the winner of the New South Wales business owner Micro-business award, and were overall NSW Business of the Year?

Rhynie Cawood: It was a big shock, a really big shock to be honest. I really didn't think we'd win it to be honest. It just makes us feel, we are quite run, amongst our peers a lot of people didn't take us incredibly serious, you get that feeling of 'oh, you are too young! How can u know what you are doing?' This just cemented that we do actually know what we are doing and we are not just fooling around, we put a lot of time and thought into what we are doing. We spend a lot of time doing what we are doing, but also at home we spend a lot of time in our business. It reinforces it and puts us in the same ball park really.


Do you have a website?

Rhynie Cawood: www.publishertextiles.com.au