Flawed Concept

 

WHY WE SAY WPI CONCEPT IS FLAWED
  • Neither Meat & Wool NZ nor the Wool Industry Network (WIN) has a mandate to spend grower money to create a new company.
  • The sale apparently includes the transfer of $2.4 million of grower levies to Wool Partners International.
  • The WIN industry concept was flawed.
  • This business was not offered to the wider industry to buy. It was a closed-door deal.
  • They relied on only 45 grower submissions (out of 15,000 farmers) for their Catalyst for Change “consultation” based decisions.
  • Wool Partners International will not speak for all woolgrowers, only those grower shareholders it can attract.
  • WIN ignored 27 industry submissions that mostly said “you’ve got it wrong” both factually and philosophically.
  • There is a risk that Wool Partners International may be seen by some as the logical recipient of cash  from WRONZ ($30 million) or the Wool Board Disestablishment Co ($6 million).
  • Claims that consultation has been extensive and industry-wide are not true.  
  • Detailed confidential ideas and marketing concepts were given to WIN by industry participants during private discussions.
  • Since the initial “Catalyst for Change” document the Wool Exporters Council has not been formally consulted.
  • It seems that these concepts have now found their way to Wool Partners International – a competitor of those who provided them.
  • Wool Exporters Council members account for 80 percent of all wool exports.
  • Wool Partners International is a new company with serious lack of wool industry experience at chairman, board and chief executive level.
  • It appears a plan for the industry was established early on with PGG Wrightson, but never disclosed to the wider industry.  
  • Entities funded by woolgrowers tend to quickly become burdensome bureaucracies.
  • Wool Partners International share structure does not seem to contemplate investment by any other commercial entity.
  • Wool Partners International’s chair has announced she would get rid of the auction and along with it, pricing transparency.
  • Wool Partners International is a private company. At the moment it has no grower shareholders.
  • Wool Partners International is said to be modelled on the Merino Company.  
  • Wool industry asset Wools of New Zealand and its Fernmark brand have been sold to Wool Partners International.
  • Many Merino Company shareholders are dissatisfied with the level of overheads, poor shareholder returns and low wool prices.
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