Small Business: Nodi Rugs journey from Milan to NZ success

Olivia Moon is the founder of Nodi Rugs. Photo / Supplied

Olivia Moon, founder of Nodi Rugs, talks to Tom Raynel about her experience living and learning about rug-making overseas, and where to next for the brand 10 years after its launch. Each Monday, we interview a small business owner, which is now a regular feature of NZME’s editorial campaign On The Up, showcasing uplifting stories of success, inspiration and possibilities.

What is Nodi?

We are a rug and carpet company. We make entirely hand-woven rugs and carpet from all natural fibres, and we’ve been operating now for just over 10 years.

What inspired you to start the business?

I grew up in Wellington and started design at Massey. I had always had a deep love and curiosity for textiles. After a year at Massey, I decided it wasn’t for me.I was 19 and I moved to Milan. That’s really the beginning of the story because that experience totally changed the way I viewed the world and design and how things are made.

While I was an intern in Milan, I was making these hand-knotted necklaces on the side to make some money because I was a totally unpaid intern. They would take me four days to make one necklace and it really connected me to what it meant to actually make something by hand.

It was also during this experience that I learned the word nodi, which means knots in Italian. At that point, it just stuck with me. I thought if I ever were to start something, that would be it. Having no idea that I was about to go and start a rug company.

You also spent some time in India, what was that like?

I felt this sense that I needed to go on this quest to learn and to complete my studies in some way. I went to India for six months and spent all my time in rug factories. I really was just hanging over the looms, taking photos and videos and trying to understand as much as I could. I wasn’t interested in machine-made.

Then, after a couple of months, the factory owners were saying, ‘What are you going to do? You’re a random girl from New Zealand, no company has sent you. Like, what do you actually want?’.

At that point, I designed the first collection of rugs and had them woven and moved home and waited for the rugs to arrive and then thought, what on Earth have I done?

Why is using natural fibres so important to you?

It was always a non-negotiable, it feels like something intrinsic to humans that you choose natural because it feels good. It was a conscious choice, but it was just always natural.

I think that comes partially from my upbringing and my parents choosing natural where they could for us growing up. That plastic smell of synthetic stuff that gives you a headache, I have a zero tolerance for it.

There are many benefits and challenges with natural. One challenge, for example, is we use jute, which is a plant that grows in West Bengal. There’s a lot of variation in jute in its texture and its colour, and you can’t actually control that. You might get a batch of rugs that look slightly different. For the customer, the education piece around why that is creates some challenges because not everyone gets that or wants that.

Nodi Rugs uses jute, which is a plant that grows in West Bengal.

What’s next for the business after 10 years of operating?

We really want to be the best rug and carpet brand and supplier in New Zealand. We want to continue to innovate with our unique products, and we want to continue to educate people around how to develop interesting products that are liveable, that they can easily put into their homes without too much thought.

We also hope to expand outside of New Zealand. We currently sell our rugs in Australia and the US, but not yet our carpet, so watch this space.

What would be your advice to a budding entrepreneur wanting to start a business?

I think two parts of it. One, get the best advice that you possibly can because you actually can’t afford not to. When you’re starting, you cannot physically afford to do much because you’re on a shoestring. But hustling to get the right advice from experienced people is absolutely what I’m so grateful for.

The other thing a lot of people don’t realise when they start a business is really how tenacious you have to be. It’s really hard, and you’ve got to keep going.

Tom Raynel is a multimedia business journalist for the Herald, covering small business, retail and tourism.