If you'd like to jump to our online shop to buy the Noonoo products we currently have available, click HERE.

A note from Jo Ashburner, creator, founder and owner of the Noonoo brand.

How did Noonoo start?

NOONOO is the affordable eco brand for small children (birth and up) - soft toys, apparel, welcome blankets and booties all made from eco ethical sustainable and/or organic textiles, including cashmere-like bamboo fleece, softest organic cotton, cotton-like felted lambswool, habotai and satin silk – all toxin free, safety tested and gift packaged for the perfect gift.

In 1999, I had been married for seven years and lived in London and abroad, but 8x weeks before my son was born I unexpectedly found myself alone with no access to funds and nowhere to live. That, as they say, was my epiphany. I had not enjoyed my school years so going back into education at the age of 34 was a major leap of faith, but in the end, totally the right choice for me and our future. I had to overcome the situation I found myself in and long story short, I went to Uni. 

I worked hard and (although Ill never have the bank balance of JK Rowling who was in the same predicament at the same time!), I refused to let being a single mum, living in a council house and surviving on 12p a day (after rent, utilities and bills) define me. Four years later, I graduated with a First Class Honours degree in Surface Pattern Design from Swansea Institute (now University of Wales Trinity St Davids) in 2004.

The concept of the NOONOO brand (www.noonoodesign.com) and product was developed during the three years of the degree and borne out of the need to keep my then very small son interested in what I was studying to make my life easier in the study years.  The idea went on to win me a European Social Fund scholarship to do a Masters degree in Enterprise at the University of Manchester, and ultimately to win the awards of Wales Regional and UK National Businesswoman of the Year in 2006.

Soon after graduating from Swansea Institute (now UWTSD), I moved up North to take up the scholarship and the idea for my eco brand really started to take off and overtake the Masters learning process.  I set up a workshop in a studio over a garage in a warehouse unit in Ramsbottom, and started to painstakingly make my products.  Demand soon outstripped supply, due in no small part to the the website I had designed and promoted as part of the Masters learning curve, and I soon realized that to sell to the public, I would have to increase production at the same time as making the strategic change to sell to trade, to ensure that the amount of product I needed to purchase did not sit around affecting my cash flow whilst losing money in storage….. and so I decided to look for help in manufacturing my product on a larger scale. 

The hallelluiah moment of realizing that a change needed to be made and the time to think BIG had arrived, coincided with the realization that it was going to be difficult to find someone to process the textile I had developed and patented and which made the NOONOO range of products unique.  After taking a staggering number of orders for product I hadn’t yet made at a major trade exhibition at the NEC at the end of 2005 – the first time NOONOO was shown to the buying trade and public – I realised there was no way back. 

At that first show, I was bemused to find how little awareness people had of the benefits of eco products and how unwilling they seemed to be, whether trade or consumer, to accept that there was a way of giving real quality to customers at the same time as giving them the opportunity to invest in a product with longevity.  No one it seems really ‘got’ the concept of organic and toxin-free textiles being used in products for children …..  how things have changed since then.

So that was it - armed with a few names and contact numbers supplied by my father, several personal credit cards, and elephants in my stomach, I flew to the Far East on a personal mission to resolve the NOONOO supply problem.

By the end of 2005, I had made the decision to put completion of the Master on ‘interruption’ (hold) and set up a workshop in Ho Chi Minh (old Saigon) in partnership with a Vietnamese businesswoman - four years on the same workshop continues to employ +/-28 people making the NOONOO range of products. 

With no outside investment into the business, the industrial machines needed to manufacture the product were purchased in the UK, shipped by sea out to the new workshop and I travelled back and forth over several months to set up the management and training of staff in the new facility, and production finally started. 

The NOONOO factory was  located in a terraced house in a residential area of that rapidly growing city and the workers enjoyed a shaded courtyard with hammocks for rest periods, a cook and cleaner, and overall European standard working conditions ensuring staff loyalty. 

I set this up in the way I felt in my gut was the right and fair way to employ people to make the Noonoo product - this was my own adventure and foray into independent manufacturing and the start for me of putting into practice everything I felt should be implemented into the world of ethical business practices and social enterprise.

Through my contacts and efforts, the workshop produced own-label product for a diverse range of household brands, including Nature et Decouvertes (France), Eden Project (UK) and Habitat (UK) amongst others. 

My ethos is that if something could be made with a sewing machine, to the highest of standards at an affordable cost and in comparatively low quantities, then its good for the workshop to diversify and grow their own opportunities, and takes the pressure off NOONOO as sole client.

NOONOO, which won the UK Gift of the Year award for eco products in the gift and lifestyle markets in 2009 has since inception been nominated for several National Business Awards in the UK as well as Sustainable Product Awards in the US and Best Product in Show at Maison & Objets in Paris. 

NOONOO sold throughout the UK into high end retailers including Fenwicks and The John Lewis Partnership, and worldwide through eight distributors in countries as far afield as South Korea, Japan, Australia, the US and Europe.

Where we are now

As Noonoo, and (on the retirement of my father) subsequently the flag manufacturing side of the business took up more and more of my time, the Mysterious Flotsam format was taken on by other companies and I set up the social enterprise Red Dragon Manufacturing Ltd (trading as Red Dragon Flagmakers) which brings us up to date.

I donated the bulk of remaining Noonoo stock In Kind Direct in 2016, a UK based charity which takes product donations and re-distributed them to other charities and causes.

Noonoo and the In Kind charity

Now that the bulk of Noonoo stock has been shipped and donated to #InKindDirect, a wonderful Princes Trust organisation which redistributes products from companies to charities, social enterprises and not for profit organisations, the Noonoo website has been closed.

If you'd like to buy direct from a charity local to you, please scroll down to view the list of organisations who have benefited from Noonoo products to date.  To read the Donor Impact Report, March 2017, click the image below.

 

Beyond Limits	Family welfare	North East	Co Durham
Greenfields Centre	Family welfare	East Midlands	Nottinghamshire
Stanley Mews Community Trust	Disability	East Midlands	Northamptonshire
Complete Kidz Cic	Sport	West Midlands	West Midlands
Vauxhall Neighbourhood Council	Jobs skills, training and education	North West	Merseyside
Minner-Scheidemann Charitable Trust	Family welfare	London
African Heritage and Educational Centre	Arts, culture and heritage	London
Daisy Inclusive UK	Disability	North West	Merseyside
Wamumbi Orphan Care Foundation	Overseas development and relief	North West	GWYNEDD
Blairdardie Out of School Service	Child/youth care	Scotland	Scotland
Dorset Reclaim	Community group or project	South West	Dorset
Nanstallon Pre-school	Child/youth care	South West	Cornwall
CCLASP	Child/youth care	Scotland	Scotland
Salvation Army - Northampton East	Family welfare	East Midlands	Northamptonshire
Winlaton Centre Community Association	Community group or project	North East	Tyne & Wear
Centrepoint Christian Church	Community group or project	West Midlands	West Midlands
Cornerstone Care in Confidence	Counselling/advice	East	Cambridgeshire
Carryduff Pre-school Playgroup	Child/youth care	Northern Ireland	Northern Ireland
Cranhill Church of Scotland - Family Matters	Community group or project	Scotland	Strathclyde
Toddington Scout Group	Child/youth care	East	Bedfordshire
Charms The Essex Therapy Centre	Disability	East	Essex
Mustard Seed Project Kenya	Child/youth care	East	Lincolnshire
Riverside Early Years	Child/youth care	East	Lincolnshire
POW Nottingham	Alcohol/substance abuse	East Midlands	Nottinghamshire
Lenton Centre	Health/medical	East Midlands	Nottinghamshire
Woodlands Pre-school and Nursery	Child/youth care	London	Essex
Barnsbury Housing Association	Housing and homelessness	London	London
Hornchurch District Scouts	Child/youth care	London	Essex
Options 4 Change	Child/youth care	London	London
Iraqi Welfare Association	Family welfare	London	Middlesex
You and Me Counselling	Counselling/advice	London	Essex
Europe For Christ Mission	Child/youth care	London	London
Age UK - Waltham Forest	Older people's support	London	London
Burnley Play Association	Disability	North West	Lancashire
CAB - Wavertree	Counselling/advice	North West	Merseyside
Royal Oak & Baguley Residents Association	Community group or project	North West
Johnson Fold Residents' Association	Community group or project	North West	Lancashire
Nugent Care - Epsom Street Community Centre	Community group or project	North West	Merseyside
Salvation Army - Glasgow	Family welfare	Scotland	South Lanarkshire
YMCA - Kirkcaldy	Child/youth care	Scotland	Fife
Lanarkshire Kidney Patients Association	Health/medical	Scotland	Lanarkshire
NIPPERS	Child/youth care	South East	East Sussex
South East Berks Scout Council - Gang Show	Community group or project	South East	Berkshire
Early Birth Association	Health/medical	South East	East Sussex
Chernobyl Childrens Lifeline - Eastleigh Link	Community group or project	South East	Hampshire
Hele Hub CIC	Jobs skills, training and education	South West	Devon
Local Food Links	Health/medical	South West	Dorset
Goms Mill Residents Association	Community group or project	West Midlands	Staffordshire
NAVIGO CIC - Tukes Project	Health/medical	Yorkshire & the Humber	Humberside - South
Rock foundation UK ltd	Disability	Yorkshire & the Humber	Lincolnshire
West Hill Community Services	Community group or project	Yorkshire & the Humber	Humberside - North
GOAL For The Gambia	Overseas development and relief	London	Kent
Raft Foundation, The	Family welfare	North West	Lancashire
Starter Packs Glasgow	Housing and homelessness	Scotland	Strathclyde
Dial-a-Dream	Health/medical	London
Caxton House Community Centre	Community group or project	London	London
Beith Community Development Trust	Community group or project	Scotland	Ayrshire
Carers Support Ashford	Family welfare	South East	Kent
Y Services for Young People	Child/youth care	South East	Hampshire
Barnsley Blind & Partially Sighted Association	Disability	Yorkshire & the Humber	South Yorkshire
Langdon Hills PCC	Child/youth care	East	Essex
Home Start - Ashfield	Family welfare	East Midlands	Nottinghamshire
Toy Project	Child/youth care	London	London
Charles Thompson's Mission	Housing and homelessness	North West	Merseyside
Pulling Together Asian Women's Group	Arts, culture and heritage	North West	Greater Manchester
Seaforth Information Network Group	Community group or project	North West	Merseyside
Elim Church - Watford	Community group or project	East	Hertfordshire
Women's Ministry	Sport	London	Surrey
Waltham Forest Asian Mothers Group	Disability	London
Disability Support Group (North East)	Disability	North East	Tyne & Wear
Teesside Ability Support Centre	Disability	North East	Cleveland
Big Light On CIC	Jobs skills, training and education	North West	Lancashire
Port William Inshore Rescue Service	Community group or project	Scotland	Dumfriesshire
Summerston Childcare	Child/youth care	Scotland	Lanarkshire
Boomerang Community Centre	Community group or project	Scotland	Scotland
Horley Row Community Pre-school	Child/youth care	South East	Surrey
Jamies Wish Trust	Health/medical	South East
Sunfield	Child/youth care	West Midlands	Worcestershire
Warley Gateway Club	Disability	West Midlands
Mary Tozer House Social Club	Community group or project	Yorkshire & the Humber	South Yorkshire
50+ Tuesday Lunch and Social Club	Community group or project	Yorkshire & the Humber	Humberside - North
Stand Up for Africa (SUFA)	Family welfare	London	London
East London Out Project (ELOP)	Counselling/advice	London
Ryecroft Hall Community Association	Community group or project	North West	Greater Manchester
Voluntary Action - Halton & St Helens	Campaigning/umbrella organisation	North West	Cheshire
Geeza Break	Alcohol/substance abuse	Scotland
Clyst Caring Friends	Disability	South West
Burford Parish Hall	Community group or project	West Midlands	Worcs
Broomfield South SILC	Disability	Yorkshire & the Humber	West Yorkshire

Our plans for Noonoo and the the future

The products we continue to sell constitute the few ranges we held back from the charity and form the basis for the new range of Noonoo products we are planning for launch in 2017.

Watch this space and social media for updates.