Wider industry says Woolmark will bring back lost shoppers

Creating shopper demand is the blindingly obvious way to achieve acceptable prices and long term stability for New Zealand wool.

For years no-one has told end users about the marvellous qualities of wool and why they should buy wool products ahead of synthetics. The attributes of wool are fast becoming one of the worlds best kept secrets.

If people aren’t asking for wool carpets and woollen clothes at shop level, the mills are not going to use it and prices for raw wool will continue to languish. 

Synthetics are cheaper, easier to use, have stable year round supply and are often made at their backdoors, rather than having to ship it halfway round the world.

Exporters, private wool merchants, independent brokers and scourers are backing a comprehensive international study that called for the relaunch of “wool” as a brand. A major part of this would be to reintroduce shopper education programmes that compete head-to-head with synthetics. 

New Zealand, Britain, Australia and Uruguay helped fund the study, which suggests the wool producing countries establish a worldwide joint venture. The International Wool Textile Organisation says this move is a “must” for wool to survive.

The Woolmark is still one of the world’s best recognised brands and is ideally placed to relaunch wool education.

Today’s Woolmark is efficient, focussed and going places. New Zealand needs to be on board.

With only 25 percent of the crossbred wool supply, New Zealand is too small to go it alone. 

Everyone’s willing to participate except Meat & Wool New Zealand and Wool Partners International.

As WPI was being established, Meat & Wool NZ went on record as saying demand creation was not important and the wool industry needed a change in structure.

They want to compete with the other wool producing countries and develop their own new country of origin brands. This is a weak alternative that will fail to ignite consumer interest.

They can’t see the need to unite limited resources and compete head-to-head with synthetic fibres that massively dominate the carpet and textile industry.

Mills that use wool also use synthetics and it is very easy to switch off wool and go synthetics. Once the change is made carpet and textile producers invariably don’t go back to wool.