The nbn™ network is taking this family retail business to the next level.

Nicola and Carl, owners of Smitten Merino, at their home in Tasmania

When Nicola and Carl decided they wanted a move from their home in Western Australia, Tasmania seemed like the perfect option with its laidback lifestyle, friendly community and cooler climate, so without knowing what their next move was, the family picked up and moved to Hobart.

Business-minded Nicola and Carl parked themselves in a coffee shop one morning and set some parameters about what their next business venture could be.

Knowing that they loved the cooler climate, Merino wool and Australian fashion, they decided to combine it all and build a completely Tasmanian owned-and-made clothing company, Smitten Merino.

The whole family works for Smitten; Carl takes care of the marketing, Nicola is the designer and photographer, daughter Holly is the face of the company, youngest daughter Brooke is a part-time Smitten model, tag maker and packer, and their son Daniel will eventually take over as photographer for all of the shoots.

Nicola says “our philosophy is to keep it really local, so look books, tags, signs and every kind of thing we can get made here we get made in Tassie – what we want to do is support the Tassie economy as well as the wool growers.” 

Daughter Holly, model and face of Smitten Merino

Knowing that they wanted to share their Tasmanian designs with the rest of the world, Nicola and Carl decided to combine their shop front with an online store to ensure they could cater to customers across the country and internationally, as well as their local city.

Nicola says broadband is a backbone to their online store and is fundamentally important to ensuring they can run their online operations smoothly.

The added speed of the network means the family can usually process and send out their orders on the same day and helps offer their customers a great experience from end-to-end.

Holly says “before the nbn™ network came into our lives and our business, none of the internet stuff was this easy and its thanks to this that we are prepared to take our online store to the next level”.

See more about Smitten Merino here: