Getting It Done is our newest video series, created in partnership with Adobe Acrobat! We’re taking you behind-the-scenes of some of our favourite creative companies, giving you the inside scoop on what it takes to run a successful business and the tools they use to make it happen. First up are the legends at Kip&Co!
Launched in 2012, much loved Australian homewares and bedding brand Kip&Co started as the passion project of sisters Kate Heppell and Hayley Pannekoecke and their best friend Alex McCabe. In the eight years that have passed since then, the brand has enjoyed a meteoric rise, injecting vibrant colour and pattern into thousands of homes across Australia, and amassing a loyal fanbase, both here and overseas.
Kip&Co have built a cult following around their bright, summery colours, eye-catching patterns and contemporary, eclectic homewares. But Kate, Hayley and Alex have built a business that is impressive in more ways than one. In 2020, Kip&Co set themselves the goal of becomes a certified Carbon Neutral business – and achieved it! No mean feat for a product-based business, with a complex network of global manufacturing partners.
Perhaps even more impressively, the talented trio have also achieved an almost impossible goal for any creative business owner – work life balance. No, really!
With Kate and Hayley based in Point Lonsdale on Victoria’s surf coast, Alex based on the Mornington Peninsula, and the brand’s headquarters firmly established in central Melbourne, Kip&Co is a truly work-from-anywhere business. The co-founders each work primarily from their respective homes, connecting once a week for a team meeting. The rest of the time, they work flexible hours, relying on cloud-based software, including Adobe Acrobat, to share and sign design documents, wholesale orders and collaboration agreements, from wherever they are.
We were so lucky to spend a day in Point Lonsdale with Kip&Co’s co-founders recently, and get a first-hand glimpse of just how they get it all done!
Adobe Acrobat enables teams to collaborate, share, sign, edit and annotate PDF documents wherever, whenever. Find out more here!
Kip&Co’s co-founders, from left to right – Kate Heppell, Hayley Pannekoecke and Alex McCabe. Photo – Caitlin Mills.
Kip&Co’s divine new ‘Field of Dreams’ print! Photos – Caitlin Mills.
Kip&Co’s Kate Heppell uses Adobe Acrobat to sign off designs with her team, whilst working remotely. Photo – Caitlin Mills.
Kip&Co’s co-founders (and sisters) Kate Heppell, Hayley Pannekoecke and their kids, at Point Lonsdale near Kate’s home. Photo – Caitlin Mills.
Kip&Co’s co-founders Kate Heppell and Hayley Pannekoecke have built a business that works around family. Photo – Caitlin Mills.
