Speakers

Rosemary Wright Cullachange

Profile:

Rosemary is founder and Managing Director of Cullachange, a successful Sydney based textile garment dyeing business. She is married with one daughter, Jess who works at Cullachange as a trainee manager.

Rosemary has always loved colour and design and has worked in industries that incrporate and promote the use of colour for over 40 years. These industries include cosmetics, real estate and textiles.

Dyewrx parent company of Cullachange commenced in 1990. In its first 12 years the retail service, Cullachange, was a minor part of Dyewrx's garment dyeing business primarily servicing the fashion trade. Over the period Cullachange service increased 10% per annum through word of mouth indicating a definite demand for the individual retail side of the business.

The re-dyeing of 'pre-loved' items had traditionally been delivered to the consumer through dry cleaners like Mark Mayne, David Jones and Lawrence. These companies closed their dyeing services the mid-1980s due to new fabric blends (poly-cotton etc.) because technical issues became obstacles to re-dyeing in the way the service was offered.

These obstacles faced by the dry cleaning trade were also a risk management issue for Cullachange requiring Cullachange to invest significant resources in consumer education and customer expectation management as well as developing internal systems to mitigate the impact of dyeing variables.

One of the strategies Rosemary has used to manage obstacles is the Culla Pac introduced 2 years ago. It provides consumer information in a concise fashion that appeals to the end user and has allowed Cullachange to expand the service nationally at minimal cost. Rosemary's work has seen the business increase by an average of 30% per annum.

Dyewrx and Cullachange were awarded a 2007 TCF Small Business Government Grant to assist with business expansion.

Rosemary and her team have been visionary with many of the initiatives undertaken to move the business forward and tales of her journey to business success are both entertaining and inspirational.