She adds a green flavour to our regular column On The Terrace.
Since starting The Pot Place in 1998, she had been instrumental in many trends. She fell in love with pots and this has become her field of expertise.
She introduces herself as a pot expert and that often results in some banter around the latest legislation of our smoking habits. The other question she often gets asked is if the sells AMC pots. Clearly she finds herself in a unique space, within the design community.
Her perspective is driven and shaped by love for people. She is quoted saying “Business is all about relationship”. And to this end she forms long term relationships with collagues and clients. Another moto she lives by is that your reputation is all you take with you. And in spite of some interesting developments around her, she has maintained a very good reputation.
Her journey started with a B Comm degree in Marketing. She is a business woman at heart and sold hair accessories, food, hardware, paint and pantyhose in the early years to keep food on the table and bills paid.
As a small business owner in the retail sector for 16 years, she learnt to organise logistics, manage staff, buy, sell, merchandise, understand the books and everything that goes into the day to day running of a store. What came as a bonus was learning to upcycle. As business is never in a vacuum, and the world and environment constantly changing, the trend is to be sustainable and waste management is now a very trendy sector to be in.
Having her upcycled jewelley at Fashion Week in 2016 and 2018 certainly stood out.
But what gets Adri really going is her love for pots and how she sees that as a solution to many a green design dilemma.
All of her experience in hardware and dealing with clients for 20 years, together with trends in the industry, has lead her want to educate.
This is also not new. She has been writing articles for magazines for 10 years, doing workshops and being a guest speaker at shows like Grand Design.
If you follow her on social media you will also notice a lot of pictures of her garden. Garden Boutique she calls it. With her huge network of sculptors in mind, she decided to embark on “gardening without plants”. Being ever aware of the climate in South Africa and our shortage of water, she has some creative solutions at play to harvest rainwater. Traditionally called “hard landscaping’, the use of sculptures, furniture, pots, rocks, wood and other upcycled art, play an increasingly important part in making our modern day gardening dreams come true. Increasing our living space, and increasing the value of our property.
Bio for Adri
With 17 years experience in the green industry – Adri Neuper is no stranger to the world of design and innovation.
Shortly after she completed her B Comm degree at UJ, Adri jumped right into the work
environment, making her way through the retail side of the hardware and paint industry before starting a company “The Pot Place” in 1998, which quickly evolved into the centre point of sourcing, buying or manufacturing any and all things potty in Gauteng and elsewhere.
Today, Adri has built up such a vast network of suppliers which makes it possible for her to supply not only stunning and unique pots on demand, but she has the connections to manufacture any pot that a client can imagine. With such a positive can-do attitude, she has become a favourite go-to-person for various architects, landscape architects and interior designers.
Apart from her private clients, KFC, SAB, Plascon, Design Quarter, Steyn City, Walther Sisulu Botanical Gardens, Group 5 Construction, Growthpoint, Ghorbanys and OR Tambo International Airport are among the list of corporate clients that has chosen Adri as supplier or consultant in some green project on the go or in the production / planning stage.
Adri just loves a collaboration of talents, ideas, technology and that’s why it’s no surprise she has just opened her GARDEN BOUTIQUE venue in Johannesburg North. This serves as the office premises for her business, In Eeden Design Concepts, as well as a practical display area for not only a variety of pots available but some beautiful art, decor and furniture pieces available for the garden environment. Adri has renovated the GARDEN BOUTIQUE in such a way that it could also accommodate garden functions and events as well as a small workshop space for courses on art, crafts, creativity, up-cycling, entrepreneurship etc. etc.
But if anyone thinks that all this bumble-bee-busyness should be enough to keep the lid on this pot, Adri Neuper manages to present the unique concept of the A1CUBE – a long overdue 1m x 1m x 1m garden container that alleviates various practical big planter problems.
Although, not everything in life has always been smooth sailing for Adri, only those who has had the opportunity to meet this person behind the infectious smile, her persistent insistence to go beyond compliance with the job at hand or her quirky sense of humour, do really understand what quality she contributes when committing her passion to a project.