As you might have seen on our socials or online; May is the Queensland Small Business Month for 2022. Tambo Teddies is proud to be a small business in a small town, but with a big impact!

How do we know? Because we are close to our customers and engage with them daily. Sometimes the little chats we have with our customers in the store or over the phone tell the biggest stories!

Our hearts fill with love and excitement when we hear what their Tambo Teddy means to them and the role it plays in the family.

We also have our own special story about how Tambo Teddies started. It all began 29 years ago (30 years next year!). When the Tambo district was challenged by the drought and the wool prices collapsed. The Tambo community felt responsible for coming up with new ideas to support the wool industry and, with that, the economy of the district.

After a few ideas had been thrown around during a workshop, they came up with the idea of making Teddies. They would use wool pelts and stuff them with wool. Three local ladies, Mary Sutherland, Charm Ryrie and Helen Sargood took this challenge on board and started the hard work of setting up the business. They have done an amazing job and when it was time to pass the torch, three new local ladies took up the reins. Kiralee, Tammy, and Alison not only kept the business going, but they also truly transformed it. Because now, 29 years later, the Tambo Teddies are shipped all over the world and even have become welcoming gifts for the British Royal Family.

It’s been an amazing journey to experience how a small business can have this impact worldwide. But this has not taken away our focus on being a local business for the Tambo community. It feels good to be part of attracting tourists and still being the go-to for locals when they want something special for their loved ones.

Tambo Teddies is very grateful for the support we received from our community at the start of our journey, and still today! We are also proud to say we are grateful for the support Tambo Teddies gives back to the community by being part of attracting tourists, creating employment and  supporting the wool industry as well as being a 100% Australian made business.

It might sound a bit cliché, but that doesn’t make it less true. We could not have done it without the support of our community, the employees, and the hardworking- creative local owners who have built Tambo Teddies. But a special thanks to you as a customer for being part of our Tambo Teddies family and we plan to keep building the relationship.