I confess I find it hard to get my head around all the different groups at the best of times.
What I do know, is that wool is a fantastic product with many great qualities – fire retardant, natural, renewable, biodegradable, breathable (I could go on).
It’s easier said than done, but surely there’s a way to band together and market wool so that consumers are educated about its superior qualities compared to that nasty synthetic rubbish and convince them of the merits of paying a premium for an exceptional product?
This week’s story on Phil King and his Purely Dorset Duvets is a great yarn about someone who is selling into top-end markets.
King’s Dorset wool was discounted because it was very bulky and very light. His daughter suggested they develop a duvet from the wool and this week a container load of Purely Dorset premium wool duvets arrived in the US for sale.
He’s hoping to buy all the Dorset wool grown in New Zealand for the company to turn into duvets.
In other positive news, WRONZ has paid Fahrenheit $1 million for coming up with four ideas which can be taken forward to commercial development by New Zealand companies. Three of those four ideas are currently being followed through – in bedding, apparel and beauty care.
And although I’m not much of a royalist, I do appreciate what Prince Charles has done in lending his name to the Campaign for Wool, a global five-year campaign to get people talking about the wonderful properties of wool.
HRH is going to be in Feilding this week and is meeting with some of the local farmers and agri-business leaders, so I stuck my hand up for media accreditation and am heading along to see what he has to say about agriculture in Godzone.
