Behind the Brand: Tasman Eco

When a brand has been around for 20 years, you need to sit and take notice. There must be a reason they've been around this long, because not many brands these days can make that claim. Tasman Eco have gone the distance, and they're barely even getting started.

We sat down with the brains behind the brand, to discover the secret to their success, how they've been become the pioneers of the baby nursery furniture space, and their big plans for the future.

1. Who is Tasman Eco? 

Tasman Eco is an Australian-owned, family operated business who designs and creates nursery furniture for Australian families, and have done so for close to 20 years. Founded by Steve Cenatiempo in 2004, Tasman Eco was created as a means to bring safe, beautiful, functional, quality-focused nursery furniture to Australian families. 

Before Tasman Eco, Steve owned and ran a baby-goods department store Cuddles ’N’ Mum, for 18 years in Western Sydney. 

The key drivers of the business have always been to create quality products for parents and families, to ensure that safety, functionality and design are prioritised. Additionally delivering excellent customer service, this is an incredibly important driver of the business, in ensuring that the Tasman Eco customer is looked after and heard, at any point of the purchasing process.

As we mentioned earlier, Tasman Eco is family-owned and family-run. Steve Cenatiempo’s children, John and Carla both work for the business, John in Operations and Logistics, Carla in Marketing. Carla’s husband, also John, is responsible for the online eCommerce business and strategy. It’s a close-knit group.

In the last 2 years, Tasman Eco has given much focus to working with a network of charities in Australia, who are focused on helping families in need, with good quality necessities they need for their families. You can learn more about the Tasman Eco Charity network here and our pledge to do good via Less Waste, Love More campaign. 

2. What does the Tasman Eco range consist of? 

The Tasman Eco product range consists of nursery furniture and baby cot mattresses. Across the Tasman Eco range and our product categories, there has been a focus to utilise materials in a sustainable fashion and to also ensure there is a product within each category that meets the different needs of different consumers. Among these product categories, Tasman Eco designs and manufactures baby cots, bassinets, nursery chests, compact cots, baby cot mattresses and other nursery accessories. 

We’re passionate about creating nursery furniture products for Australian families, pieces that look beautiful, and are more importantly, safe, in compliance with the strict Australian Standards. 

3. Could you tell us about your design process, production and manufacturing for Tasman Eco? 

When designing products there are a few key elements that we consider per product; safety, materials and the experience of the product with both parents and their children. 

With design, up until 2020 all Tasman Eco products were designed in house, although in the last few years we have made a decision to work with designers like Skeehan Studio, Durie Designs and students studying industrial design in order to bring a fresh perspective to our designs and product. At this moment in time, we are really focused on how we can push and progress our designs, where they are completely design and functionality led, working with experts in the design space. 

In terms of production and manufacturing, we have been working with the same factory in China for over 15 years. We have worked hard with our team in China to develop a strict QA process and ensure that every product is constructed to the absolute best standard in terms of safety and a quality product. 

With our factory, we are constantly working with them as new technologies, processes and practices emerge, this means we can continue to create innovative products with excellent finishings and technological improvements, something that we are very passionate about improving and growing in. 

4. Goals for the future of the Tasman Eco?

In terms of goals, Tasman Eco has always strived to create the best nursery furniture and cot mattresses within Australia, perhaps one day the consideration to take these products internationally. Seeing as the Australian safety standards for nursery furniture is some of the strictest globally, the desire to introduce these products globally would be an excellent initiative. 

We plan to grow and push our designs further, working with experts in their field to create considered products for growing families. We want to give our designs every opportunity to shine and ensure both parents and children can enjoy our products with complete peace of mind. 

We have both short and long term goals to work more with local Australian charities, to give them access to excellent products to support families in need, this has become a huge priority for us in the last 2 years. 

In addition, another goal of ours is to push and challenge our impact environmentally, identify more and more ways in which we’re able to improve our environmental footprint. This is important to us, in consideration to the type of work we find ourselves in.  

5. What advice do you have for readers when setting up their nursery and selecting furniture?

Building your nursery can be overwhelming and we understand that there are a lot of moving parts and pieces to consider when creating your nursery space. When you know where your nursery space will be, the key things you need to consider are space and functionality, assessing the space you have for the key pieces of furniture you need, most importantly, your baby cot. 

Another key piece to consider is storage, if you have wardrobe and shelving space, or not, a chest of drawers with a change top is an excellent option, meaning more storage and some space saving with your changing station included. There are then other key items to consider, like a change table, a bassinet, feeding chair and any other pieces that can help parents in those early months and years. 

Once you have chosen your key furniture items, which will take up most of the space in your nursery, go ahead and begin decorating the space for your new addition. 

6. 3 keywords that describe Tasman Eco?

Considered, Innovative, Passionate 

Find out more about Tasman Eco right here.