Tamzyn Adding founded Miss Lolo in 2013 specialising in big, bold, and unapologetically loud wallpaper designs.
Tamzyn Adding founded Miss Lolo in 2013 specialising in big, bold, and unapologetically loud wallpaper designs.
Tamzyn Adding is moving her interiors company Miss Lolo to Australia saying New Zealand is in a mess and she can’t spend another five years “battling an old boys’ club”.
The decision to move to Brisbane in September is personal too. Adding and her husband have four school-aged daughters.
“Seeing the new education curriculum come through was pretty much the straw that broke the camel’s back for me,” she said.
Miss Lolo is synonymous with the bright and bold use of colour in its products. Photo / miss_lolo_wallpapers / Instagram
Cook is now living in Sydney, where he has had a house for 22 years, and insists he feels nothing negative about his home country and “just prefer[s] Aussie now that kids have finished school”.
“You don’t feel the same vibe or energy anymore. New Zealand feels as if it is being pulled apart at the seams,” Ellis has said.
It piles pressure on the Government in an election year with the National Party playing up the notion that New Zealand is a country with a bleak future.
Tamzyn and Ben Adding pictured with gifts for those in need at Christmas in 2017. Photo / Heath Moore
“You just see the decisions that are made and, you know, what have we got to be proud of in this country now? And I know that sounds really negative, but what have we got to be proud of? What can we look back on in the past three, four, five years and say, ‘My God, that was a good decision, what a plucky country we’ve got that we did that’. I can’t think of anything.”
Adding founded Miss Lolo in 2013. The company specialises in big, bold, and unapologetically loud wallpapers in people’s homes and in commercial premises.
But Adding always felt she needed to prove herself on an international stage before the commercial sector here would take her seriously.
“It took me five hard years of slog to get my foot in the door with the commercial sector in New Zealand and it took me five weeks to be picked up by the commercial sector in Australia.”
In recent visits to Australia, Adding said she has had back-to-back interviews with potential clients.
“They wanted something different and they wanted something new and they were all willing to give me a go. The difference between the two countries and how I’ve been received was one of the biggest catalysts for that move.”
She has already landed deals with a new recreation centre opening in Brisbane, a hotel chain, waterfront bars in Melbourne, and a hair salon chain opening in Sydney.
“I can’t stay here for another five years and do this battle. It doesn’t make sense, it feels like this old boys’ club here where nobody wants to try something new,” Adding said.
People were also constantly “bagging” the country and it felt like a toxic environment, she said.
“The state that the country’s in currently, it’s in too much of a mess. The timeframe it’s going to take to come out the other side and be a country that’s really supportive of businesses is just too big of a leap.”
Adding said she had overwhelmingly supportive feedback about the move.
“It’s not just me that’s doing this. It’s just too hard. This is across the board that businesses are just finding it way too hard.”
“It’s so frustrating because ultimately this is not where we thought we would be.”
Georgina Campbell is a Wellington-based reporter who has a particular interest in local government, transport, and seismic issues. She joined the Herald in 2019 after working as a broadcast journalist.
