Diesel & Dutch was launched in March 2021 after its founder, Andrew van Oosterwijck, was made redundant.
It’s a familiar story with many other small businesses starting the same way during Covid, however, van Oosterwijck comes with a wealth of knowledge and experience.
“I have been in the gift industry for 25 years working for different wholesalers such as IG Design Group and a few others,” he explains.
“When Covid hit and I was made redundant, I thought I know what I’m doing, I have developed products for national retailers such as Kmart, Target and Big W. I have also done a bit of work overseas in Asia, so I had some good contacts and valuable experience to start with.”
Diesel & Dutch was launched with Trivia, which he wrote during one of the many lockdowns in Melbourne, and he got together with a designer friend to create the product.
“We were able to sell into SA, WA, Queensland and later on we got into retailers in Victoria. We still have a lot of work to do in NSW, we just haven’t hit that market well.
“But overall it’s going really well. We have worked hard to develop our first line. We started with 23 products, released another 30 products three months later and we have released another 30 products for Mother’s Day.”
All products are designed and developed inhouse in Melbourne and while van Oosterwijck is the man behind the brand, he basically outsources everything else including logistics, warehousing, distribution, accounting, etc, to keep overheads low and prices competitive.
The name Diesel & Dutch was inspired by his beautiful boxer, Diesel, and his own Dutch heritage, and the brand’s concept is all about design.
“Whether its packaging or product, we are basically looking for on trend design and apply that to our products.
“For example, Australiana and floral are very on trend right now and so we took the concept of poster art and applied it to puzzles featuring these designs. After spending many hours working on a puzzle, what do you do with it when it’s finished? You break it up and put it back into the cupboard. Now you can hang them. It makes for a great gift.
“We are a lifestyle business and our products have to be giftable. They are suitable for independent retailers such as lifestyle, gift and homewares stores. I got tired of dealing with the big guys, so I just want to deal with people that I like.
“It was great meeting new customers at the fair, for us it’s all about finding the right partners and people seem to love what we do, so it wasn’t a hard sell for us.”
Diesel & Dutch will be launching placemats and tea towels later this year, but for now van Oosterwijck is focusing on Mother’s Day.
“We are exhibiting at Reed Gift Fairs Sydney this April. We can ship within 24 hours, so hopefully this is still good for Mother’s Day.”
