About My Business
Lily & George is a New Zealand family business creating character-led soft toys, baby gifts and plush collections for retailers and families across New Zealand and Australia. The business was originally started in 2008, and we purchased it in 2020. At that stage, Lily & George had a lovely product range and loyal customers, but it had largely operated as a bolt-on to a bigger business. Since then, we have spent the past six years building it into a fully-fledged standalone brand, with its own systems, product development processes, wholesale network, safety compliance, warehousing and distribution. Today, Lily & George is stocked in hundreds of stores across New Zealand and Australia, including gift stores, pharmacies, baby boutiques, souvenir stores and independent retailers. We are incredibly proud of what the business has become, and we believe New Zealand should be proud too. Our goal is simple but ambitious: to show that a small New Zealand business can create soft toys that sit among the best in the world. What makes Lily & George different is the care behind each character. We do our design work in-house and spend a lot of time developing names, personalities, stories, textures, fabrics and little details that make each range feel special. We work closely with our production partners in China, and we genuinely value those relationships. They are a key part of helping us bring our ideas to life while maintaining the quality, safety and finish our customers expect. Our children, and even their friends, often become part of the informal testing team too. Their ideas and reactions help us stay connected to what children actually love, rather than simply creating products that look good on a shelf. Lily & George is owned and run by husband-and-wife team Amy and Richie Dickens. Amy leads much of the customer contact, accounts and front-office side of the business, while both Amy and Richie contribute to product design. Richie focuses heavily on design development, compliance, supply chain, warehousing, distribution and getting orders picked, packed and out the door. At its heart, Lily & George is a small, hands-on business built on creativity, hard work, strong relationships and a belief that soft toys should have real character, comfort and joy.
Why We Should Win The Peoples Choice Award
People should vote for Lily & George because we are a small New Zealand business trying to do something special in a category that is often treated as ordinary. Soft toys are everywhere, but we believe the right soft toy can become part of a childhood. It can be the bedtime favourite, the comfort item, the gift that is remembered, or the little friend that gets carried everywhere. That is why we care so much about what we create. We are not trying to make the cheapest soft toys in the market, and we are not trying to make products that feel out of reach for everyday families either. Our goal is to create beautiful, safe, character-filled soft toys that feel genuinely special, while still being affordable enough for real families, real gift-givers and real retailers. That balance matters to us. We want parents and gift buyers to be able to choose Lily & George with confidence, knowing that a lot of thought has gone into the design, fabrics, textures, safety and overall feel of each product. We want our toys to be loved, cuddled and played with, not just looked at on a shelf. One of the things we are most proud of is how close we are to our customers. We are not a faceless brand. If a retailer rings us, they are speaking directly with the people who run the business. If a customer gives feedback, it is heard by the people who can actually do something with it. If someone has an idea, a concern or a suggestion, it does not disappear into a corporate system. Earlier this year, we ran a design-a-toy competition, inviting our community to be part of the creative process. For us, that was a perfect example of what Lily & George is about. We love creating characters, but we also love listening to the children, families and retailers who bring those characters to life. There are not many soft toy companies where you can pick up the phone and speak to the person involved in designing the range — and where that person is a local Kiwi who can genuinely help shape what comes next. That is something we are proud of. We often say we are small enough to be agile, but big enough to make things happen. That means we can listen, respond, improve and create quickly, while still having the production partnerships, wholesale network and systems needed to deliver properly. A vote for Lily & George is a vote for a New Zealand business that cares deeply about its products, its customers and the children who ultimately love what we make. It is a vote for thoughtful design, strong relationships, safe products, accessible quality and a little more character in the world. We would love your support in helping more people discover the story behind Lily & George.
