Ethical + sustainable wholesale store. Giftware and global homewares, made by locals.

Our Story

About us

We’re a small company that was established to help artisans from around the world share their beautiful creations and bring their joy to your home. We source our products globally and curate a selection of unique and sustainably made homewares. Each piece tells a story and brings individuality to your home.

We were previously selling directly on our website, however have moved into wholesale, if you interested in stocking our products, we would love you to hear from you.

Our founder, Jo, has built a few houses over the last few years and that has meant moving – a lot. She’s been a graphic designer for over 20 years so she naturally thinks about design, about how things fit and about the feel of different spaces. The process of moving made her think about what we really need – and where our homewares come from. It’s that concept of thoughtful purchasing that gave rise to the idea behind Ruthven + Co. Instead of buying things that fill a space and have a limited lifespan, choose each piece consciously and have it last for years. That’s where we started. Now we have relationships with artisans around the world and have sourced some incredibly unique products.

By choosing to purchase artisan products from Ruthven + Co you’re helping small communities around the world to preserve their culture and become economically self-sustaining. That’s a pretty great choice.

Our Philosophy

It’s simple really.

We believe in quality craftsmanship, not mass production. We believe in buying from people, not conglomerates. We believe in supporting communities, not exploiting them.

Ethical design. Crafted by artisans.

Our Mission

To sustainably support local communities by sourcing authentic and top-quality homewares from global artisans.

Artisan made

Please note: the nature of artisan made means things are not perfect, that’s part of their beauty. If you are interested in a product and concerned with any imperfections it may have then get in touch and we can show you a photo and have a chat.

Get in touch

We love hearing from our customers so if you have any feedback, or know of any artisans whose work we could source then please get in touch or pop into our space at 36 Industrial Place, Queenstown between 1-5pm on Saturdays or during the week by appointment. [email protected]

JOIN THE ARTISAN MOVEMENT

Deliveries / Shipping

Free shipping for deliveries within New Zealand. We aim to dispatch all orders within 24-48 hours. We will always make contact via email to inform if we are needing to courier outside this time frame. We are conscious of not using plastic in packaging for shipping and have made an effort to use cardboard packaging and environmentally friendly products such as Geami WrapPak which is a sustainable alternative to bubble wrap, plus natural sisal lashing (compostable) and pop starch biodegradable void fill which is also 100% compostable and biodegradable.

We ship globally. Please email us on [email protected] for more information should you be outside of New Zealand and are interested in purchasing some of our homewares, or have any further questions regarding shipping.

Returns

We understand it can be difficult buying items online without seeing them first and we want you to buy with complete confidence. If you are not entirely happy with your products you may send it back to us within 7 days of receipt and we will refund you the full cost of your product minus any shipping charges (including the outgoing charge from our warehouse in Queenstown). Alternatively, you may send back your product for a swap to another one. Once again, we ask you pay for the shipping in this situation.

Once an order has been placed you are unable to cancel or alter the order. Please let us know if there are any problems with our products, please email us [email protected] If goods are damaged on arrival please photograph and email us and we will endeavour to arrange for replacement if possible or refund.

Privacy Policy

WHO WE ARE Our website address is: https://www.ruthvenandco.com.

WHAT PERSONAL DATA WE COLLECT AND WHY WE COLLECT IT

Comments When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection. An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment. Media If you upload images to the website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images on the website. Contact forms Cookies If you leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year. If you have an account and you log in to this site, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser. When you log in, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select "Remember Me", your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed. If you edit or publish an article, an additional cookie will be saved in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you just edited. It expires after 1 day. Embedded content from other websites Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website. These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website. Analytics

WHO WE SHARE YOUR DATA WITH

HOW LONG WE RETAIN YOUR DATA

If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue. For users that register on our website (if any), we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.

WHAT RIGHTS YOU HAVE OVER YOUR DATA

If you have an account on this site, or have left comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.

WHERE WE SEND YOUR DATA

Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.

YOUR CONTACT INFORMATION

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

How we protect your data What data breach procedures we have in place What third parties we receive data from What automated decision making and/or profiling we do with user data Industry regulatory disclosure requirements

Terms and Conditions

The following terms and conditions apply to your use of the Ruthven + Co website and any purchase you make using the website.

ONLINE PROCESS

We must receive payment in full before your order can be accepted. Once payment has been received by us we will confirm that your order has been accepted by sending an email to you at the email address you provide in your order form. Items will then be dispatched once payment has been received.

CONTENT ACCURACY

We take every care to ensure that the description and specification of our products are correct at the time of publication. However, while the colour reproduction of the products is a close representation, we cannot accept any responsibility for any variation in colour caused by the browser software or computer system used by you. Prices on site are current at time of display and subject to variation without notice. We will do our best to display accurate descriptions and pricing, but are unable to warrant that the product descriptions or other content of the web site is accurate, complete, reliable, current or error free. We shall not be liable to any person for any loss or damage which may arise from the use of any of the information contained in any of the products on this website.

PRIVACY AND SECURITY

We are committed to protecting our customer’s privacy. Ruthven + Co will never distribute any personal information to third parties under any circumstance, including those who subscribe to our mailing list. The information we collect is used solely to process your order and stay in touch with you.

PRICING AND PAYMENT

All prices on the Ruthven + Co online store are given in New Zealand Dollars exclusive of delivery costs. We accept payment from Payment Express. Please we have no control over any customs or import duties that could be levied when the package reaches your destination country if you are outside of New Zealand, and for which you will be liable.