We chat to the man behind the pram: Mark Edwards of Edwards & Co
If you’re a parent or have anything to do with little ones… you’ve likely seen Edwards & Co rounding every street corner, rocking back and forth at your local coffee spot or strolling the park. The local baby company is renowned for their practical but chic prams, strollers and carry cots getting parents and their children from A to B. But how did it all begin?
A mum and customer of Edwards & Co herself, Remix Editor-in-Chief Amber was excited to talk to Mark Edwards about their Kiwi success story, the motivations behind new collection Modern Love and his own parenting journey with surrogacy.
Mark, I walk around with my own Edwards & Co pram on the North Shore, and on any walk at least 70% of other mums I come across have the same pram… you guys dominate the pram world here. How did you get such a monopoly on the market?
It's a lot of hard work. My father's always been in the baby business doing Knick Knack-y things, and he had a good supply chain. I used to live in Sydney working a corporate role there with my husband Christian, and we were just getting a bit bored of the rat race, so we said to dad “would you like us to work for you for a bit and see what we can do?” I worked for the business for about a year and, in that time all my friends were having children, and I could see that there were a lot of my friends buying brands that I thought were a bit gimmicky and with so many seating arrangements that it actually became really impractical. We wanted to take things back to the basics. We re-mortgaged Dad's house and got to work, creating our brand DNA and what we stand for, and we came out with our original tagline, ‘let's go kiddo,’ which was about getting out there and doing it. The first year we only sold around 100 strollers, and the second year we only sold around 120. We were just ticking along, keeping the costs low, and when we got to a point where we were selling enough, we decided to redesign the whole range which took us two or three years. Things boomed after that. I think people really resonate with the practicality and the transportability of our products. We spent a lot of time on details, getting all the stitch lines perfect, making sure there's no wrinkles, testing fabrics and getting the right supplier.
Editor-in-chief Amber's Edwards & Co Oscar MX pram in action at the Auckland Zoo
We all know that brown handlebar from a mile away! Everything you make is practical luxury for parents… from the attachable coffee cups to the luxe liners, to the fact you can attach the capsule, bassinet or pram unit into the pram wheels which to a parent is life changing stuff. But what came first and how long had you been building the design/concept?
We had three strollers, Oscar, Otis, and Buddy. Otis and Buddy didn't fly at all, but Oscar really resonated, and so we basically just focused on that. We got rid of the other two in the first couple of years and just sold the Oscar, and kept it this way until we released the Otto two years ago.
NZ was clearly in need of a localised manufacturer that thinks about the kiwi lifestyle… Do you think it was just the right time, right place?
Exactly. We could see people were getting really frustrated with the lack of basic use. We just wanted to make it faster for parents, but also keep the off-roading aspect that Kiwis like. When we go to Australia, there's a little bit of a different market, but it still resonates.
Your greatest growth period was through the covid lockdowns… Why do you think that happened?
We did really well with COVID which was surprising. I think there were a lot of parents at home who wanted to go out and do stuff and maybe had some time to buy online. Interest rates were really low so people had money to spend. In March when they first announced a lockdown all the businesses went into panic and started shedding staff, so what we did was we hired staff from the companies that were shedding them. It was such a good move because we've got some amazing talent in Australia. We made a good decision before COVID hit to buy a lot of stock and so we had a lot of stock on hand.
Tell me about your journey into parenthood… was it the idea that you wanted the best quality but easy tools to be a dad? Is that what kickstarted your innovation?
My partner Christian and I wanted to have children, and we spent a lot of time with our friends who had children. Parents love giving you feedback about their brands, so everyone told me all the things they hated about their prams. Now that I've had children I have a different view on some things, I like basket storage and I didn't realise how big of a deal that was at the time.
Yes, parent to parent, that basket storage is key. You personally had a lengthy journey with surrogacy for your children which I know can be challenging this side of the world. How did you find that process?
Yes, we actually had to go through quite a lengthy surrogacy process. We kept everything local. We set up a Facebook page in 2016 or 2017 called 'baby daddies looking for a surrogate' or something along those lines, asking if anyone wants to be a surrogate, and we got so much traction from it. It just went crazy. I guess we were probably the first people to do something like that, and so we got heaps of inquiries. I really wanted to adopt so we went down that path, but it didn't end well. There's only 50 adoptions or less in New Zealand a year done through the government so it was really limited. But then we met surprisingly a lot of women who wanted to be surrogates, and so we met Alicia and she carried Frankie. My sister in law was the genetic mother who donated her eggs, so Frankie, our firstborn is Christian’s genetic son, and Lulu who's just over 1 now is my genetic daughter. We're just really happy with what we have achieved and we wouldn't do it any differently, even though it was really hard work, it was good.
That’s incredible, I love that you named the new collection Modern Love, it seems fitting. How does Modern Love differ from the last set of products?
The biggest launch would be Olive, which is the new double stroller. The whole of Modern Love was just to change the appearance of the products. We made some updates to some of the products like Oscar, which we made stronger. We changed the handlebar from brown to grey and this was probably the most controversial move [laughs]. We just thought it was time to move forward and try to move into the more premium side of the market. That's what Modern Love is about, taking a step into advancing our collection into something new.
I love the stroller board for toddlers! So clever.
Yes, we released the toddler board which you can attach to Oscar so if you have a second child you don’t necessarily need to invest in another pram.
You’re at the top of your game… but what can we expect next?
We’re launching a sister brand to Edwards & Co. for parents and for adults, and our first focus will be on bags from nappy bags to multi-purpose bags. That will be launched in April this year and called Ed & Company. We’re looking at that day-to-day travel for parents and carrying that through our designs.
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