OOMA has been spreading joy since 2003! It all started with a contemporary art jeweller, originally from Canada, who was working from a gorgeous studio overlooking the stunning Art Deco City of Napier.
My name is Kathleen Robins and I am the proud owner and founder of OOMA. I'm an extrovert and I love people, but as a home-based creative I worked more like an introvert! I craved more people contact so I decided to move my studio into the CBD. One of my very early memories of the process was a conversation I had with my mum where I asked if she thought I would be able to cover the rent. She just laughed, patted me in the back and said "I think so".
My first shop had the almost exact same dimensions as the entrance hallway in my old villa so it was tiny! It was just a smidgen over 2 metres wide and 6 metres deep, and the back half was essentially going to be my studio where I thought I'd make jewellery most days and occasionally deal with a client. That is so not what happened! I haven't made jewellery on a regular basis since.
Where OOMA Began - 47 Dalton Street Napier
I decided to move to larger premises at 40 Tennyson Street. At that time there wasn't much on that side of Tennyson Street so I was a little bit on my own. Located next-door was a monumental headstone place that did a little sideline in granite kitchen bench tops!
The inspiration for the design of the new shop was "a walk down an Italian lane with lots of individual shop windows that you could gaze into". It's a stunning interior and I think one of the best small shop fit-outs undertaken in New Zealand. The only thing that wasn't designed just for OOMA was the lights. Every single other detail is bespoke! It really is beautiful. Alan Passchier was the main designer and sculptor and artist Riks Terstappan did all the incredible steelwork.
40 Tennyson Street, Napier - 2005
40 Tennyson Street, Napier - A Few Changes
Over the next 10 years OOMA we won numerous awards including the prestigious Excellence in Retail Business Award at the annual Hawkes Bay Chamber of Commerce Business Awards. Other awards over the years have included consistent recognition of our outstanding customer service and our visual merchandising and window dressing.
In 2014, I moved to Brazil and the following year I sold OOMA.
Fast forward five years and I had decided to return to Napier and I bought OOMA back. My team and I set about rebuilding OOMA with the original brand values. We gave her a much needed facelift and she re-opened in September of 2020 after a very fast two week whirlwind renovation!
Entrance and Interior of 40 Tennyson Street from September 2020 - After the Mini Renovation
Today, 4 years later, after much hard work and dedication, OOMA is once again the boutique I envisioned all those years ago.