From Matakana to Knightsbridge: How a Kiwi firm got luxury pillows into Harrods

Luxury pillow maker Steph Wyborn says it took years of knocking on Harrods’ door to finally get her New Zealand-made goods into the exclusive London store.

The travel pillow package sells for £200 ($408) and
Wyborn, founder and chief executive of the company Hyoumankind, says conversations with buyers and marketing staff began before the pandemic.

Harrods, a 175-year-old institution at its Knightsbridge site, has a customer base of 60 million visitors and online customers.

Wyborn, who invented the Go Pillow in her Matakana kitchen, says the opportunity to sell through Harrods was a massive opportunity for her business.

“For our family-run brand that started at our kitchen bench, being in Harrods was something I dreamed of – so I am so over the moon it’s happened.

She flew to London for a few days just before Christmas to introduce staff to the pillows, which include a water-resistant travel bag and pure silk pillowcase and can also be used as an everyday pillow at home.

A friend of one of her sons who worked in Harrods’ marketing department was at her home about five years ago and saw the pillows. This led to discussions via video conferences, but then the pandemic hit and Harrods staff moved on from their roles.

“I did maintain contact – as I always do – and I just kept trying to connect. They were really interested in the pillows in the first instance.”

While Wyborn was at the Aesthetic and Anti-Aging Medicine World Congress in Monaco in March last year, she had another go at a face-to-face meeting with buyers.

“It just happened that they had a gap and I got to meet them in their head office. It was just amazing, mind-blowing,” says Wyborn.

“I was in there for about an hour-and-a-half meeting, showed them our products and they were as keen as anything because they absolutely felt it was a great fit for Londoners and Brits and because it works in with their lifestyles.”

The Qatari sovereign wealth fund bought Harrods from Egyptian-born entrepreneur Mohamed Al-Fayed in 2010, in a transaction reported at the time to be valued at about $3 billion.

The Harrods group has thousands of staff and Wyborn said in such a big organisation, finding the right people was like looking for a needle in a haystack.

“Doors seem to open once you are in, for sure. Everything has been about persistence and perseverance and just not giving up.”

Finalising the supply deal and setting up documentation and logistics took from March to December.

Although the pillows are manufactured in this country, there needs to be a stock of them in Britain to meet demand for multiple orders.

“You could be selling for their … obviously, just one-on-one customer, but then they’ll get a company that might be setting out a superyacht.”

British customers typically had busy lives and valued good-quality sleep at home and on the road.

‘’I guess everyone understands that rest and sleep is really important when they travel a lot.

“So when they’re not on business trips, they might spend winter and Barbados in summer and Spain.”

The pillows are small, about 30cm by 33cm and about 12cm high along the leading edge, and weigh just 700 grams. They’re made by Sleepyhead in Auckland.

Wyborn sells mainly in New Zealand and Australia, primarily through Hyoumankind’s website, Air NZ’s Airpoints store and at Smith & Caughey’s.

They’re now in the bedding department at Harrods, the store which says its mission is to “Make Anything Possible”.

“They’ve taken on the Go Pillow with all the accessories like the water-resistant and the towelling covers and all of that because it fits in with the customer. They have shown interest in other products once we get moving.”

During a flying visit to London before Christmas, Wyborn talked to 14 staff in the bedding department about the pillows.

“They don’t need my help and they really embraced it. I thought with our concept, because it’s just something new I really needed to set it up and they were just so receptive.”

Early feedback from Harrods about interest in the pillows had been positive.

The post-lockdown travel boom had fuelled demand for the pillows in the past two years, although the New Zealand business had been “a little bit quiet” over recent weeks, “you know, not like big huge sales, but we’re just, now it’s picking up again”.

This year there could be an opportunity to expand into Singapore.

“We manufacture our pillow here in New Zealand but for some of our textiles, we’ve gone offshore just because of quantity and cost now that we’re getting bigger, she says.

“The focus for the first six months of this year is to look for some investment to help us with working capital, funding to expand the manufacturing capability.”

Wyborn describes the pillows as different from a “typical throwaway”. In designing them, she says she got input from medical, technical and beauty experts,

Wyborn last year said she looked to another ubiquitous product for inspiration, “when I was second-guessing myself early on in the piece”.

She thought about the water bottle — “who would have thought 10 years ago that we’d all be walking around with water bottles? If the water bottle can do it, another basic need is a pillow, right?”

Grant Bradley has been working at the Herald since 1993. He is the Business Herald’s deputy editor and covers aviation and tourism.