Australian Made Week is being celebrated from Monday 6 to Sunday 12 June this year. It’s a week to not only celebrate, but also to acknowledge and support the many local makers and growers – of all shapes and sizes – that go about their business creating and making around our country.
Here at the PROPPR we are proud to be Australian Made and Owned and love that we can say we manufacture our two bathroom toilet stools in Australia, and at the same time support local manufacturing jobs. Our flagship timber models are made in Brisbane Queensland using Australian grown and sustainably sourced timbers, while our fully waterproof Acers (acrylic) are produced in Sydney, NSW.
Working with our Queensland based timber manufacturer back in 2018, when we purchased the PROPPR as a fledgling business, we decided to use Australian grown timbers and specified that they must be FSC (Forestry Stewardship Council) certified. We also took the opportunity to reinvent our flagship natural finish timber stool in Tasmanian Oak, which offers a beautiful and neutral timber warmth. This PROPPR in fact earnt us the ‘designer poop stool’ tag – did you know we won an Australian Good Design Award in 2019? Yep, we’re the makers of the designer poop stool!
We also work with a manufacturer in Sydney who makes our acrylic model called the Acer, and we love that we can talk through design ideas and finishes in person (though Covid made that a little tricky at times!).
Our other component suppliers are also Australian based, such as those providing our non-slip feet on the bottom of each PROPPR, and the plaques and labels that are affixed to our poo stools. We even have our shipping boxes and large cartons custom made to size in Sydney, and are grateful that we can source small production runs as needed. This has been so helpful as we’ve grown and needed to customise our packing and shipping requirements along the way.
We love being able to say we are Australian Made, which means, even if in a small way for now, we are helping to support local jobs and the wider community. We also love that we have delved into the world of exporting our designer poop stool and that we know it has pride of place in bathrooms in the US, Canada, New Zealand, England, France and Belgium.
Why not look out for and buy Australian Made products during this week to give back to Aussie businesses like us during Australian Made Week!
If you want to know more about our PROPPR journey and this little Aussie business you can find out more on our previous post.