We sat down with Monique Ryan-Musacchio, founder of Coastal Drift, importer of incredible hand-made goods from Indigenous African artisans. 

What inspired you to start your own business? 

Growing up in Malawi, Monique Ryan-Musacchio, Founder of Coastal Drift Interiors, was inspired to connect the talented craftspeople of her birth country with the markets that could support them.

After 20 years working in corporate strategic marketing for global brands across the UK and Australia, Monique became supremely well versed in reputation management, and it was the poor-quality imitations of Malawi chairs that encouraged her to take a stand for the artisans of Malawi.

“The imitation products weren’t only drawing income away from these artisans who had spent their lives developing their craft, but the poor quality was giving Malawi chairs a bad reputation. It was so disheartening to see global brands making money off the back of generations of design and talent. Having roots and connections in Malawi, I was in the position to make a difference: to empower the community and drive positive recognition for these chairs to the right people”.

What were those first steps you took to launch? And what would you say was the scariest part/your biggest fear? 

As much as Monique’s creative background was wanting to jump into styling, shoots and catalogues, operations and logistics had to come first! Working with lifelong friends and connections within Malawi, Monique had to review supply sources artisan groups, finished product exporters, and locations within the country; to ensure the business could sustain the volume the Australian market demand potential.  She also had to button-down warehouse space and distribution at the local-end once containers tarted to roll in.

The scariest part?  Throwing every ounce of savings into the first container purchase! 

Who were the first people you hired and what were the positions? 

Kelly our Marketing and Content Manager; as even though strategic marketing was my corporate background; I was too close to the business and brand, plus my time was split too thinly across all other facets of the business – operations, sourcing, warehouse, distribution, dispatch, finance & legal.  Next came Chantell, who came on initially as our Office & Orders Assistant to take the weight of warehouse and dispatch.  Both Kelly and Chantell are still with the business 4 years later, with Chantell now heading up Sales & Customer Service – primarily with Wholesale and Trade.

Tell us a bit about how you design/make your products. 

The designs of some Coastal Drift products are traditional designs that have been passed on from generation to generation in Africa.  However, Monique and the team also work with their partners and artisan groups to use traditional weaving methods to develop new designs for furniture, lighting, basketware and jewellery.  By developing designs in Australia we are broadening the scale of the global market for artisans with pieces that are either more functional for Australian living, or where the designs an aesthetics are more suited to the Australian desires. 

Some of our stand-out Australian designs have been the Malawi Cane double hanging chair, the Malawi Cane Traditional and Classic bar stools, the Balcony Bench, our Kaya Pendants, and the soft fibres and tones of our Round Laundry basket sets from Zimbabwe (everyone loves a functional lid in Australia!)

Can you share one of your proudest moments in business so far? 

Surviving a 2-year global pandemic that ensured artisans and crafts people in Africa continued to have a global marketplace to trade their pieces to. In addition, ensuring the Australian arm of the business could also survive, and keep our teams employed while they too experienced their own hardships throughout this uncertain period.

We will be ever thankful to our Australian & New Zealand customers, stockists and trade; for their continued support. Africa has been forgotten during the global pandemic (the whole continent receiving just 0.6% of the global pool of vaccines); and we can only support from afar via their incredible crafts and skills.

What advice would you give to someone else thinking of starting out? 

Believe in yourself, have patience, be passionate – if you have crunched all the numbers and know you have a quality offering; what will come, will come.