Wool's 'story' could boost sales

THE APPAREL world is looking for stories — and it isn’t finding them in the commodity wool market, says wool entrepreneur, Peter Vandeleur.

“These manufacturers are asking, ‘what’s the fibre story going to be?’ ” said Mr Vandeleur, speaking from the Outdoor Retailer Summer Market 2011 in Salt Lake City.

“They want to know the fibre’s source, the sustainability of the production system, whether it’s from a property that has stopped mulesing — they can’t get that through the commodity system.”

Mr Vandeleur founded e-Wool in 1996, as a way of routeing around the auction system and allowing direct communication and price signals to flow between growers and the supply chain.

More recently he introduced the NewMerino brand, which accredits wool from farms using sustainable and ethical (ie. no mulesing) production methods.

Wool sold through NewMerino last year has just appeared in the United States stores of apparel giant Patagonia — the first wool to be used in a new branded line emphasising production sustainability.

While in Salt Lake City, Mr Vandeleur sat on a conference panel with representives of Ovis XXI, from South America, and ZQue, from the New Zealand Merino Company — brands with similar objectives to NewMerino — and discussed the future of wool with retailers.

“The mulesing issue is very current with these people, but sustainability is coming along close behind it,” Mr Vandeleur said.

“The retailers realise there’s no point in building a story around a fibre if the stories behind the fibre might one day prove to be negative.”

To sell wool carrying the right messages, there needed to be a structured system that documented practices and showed scientific proof of the benefits, Mr Vandeleur added.

It would add an extra level of work, “but if you want to operate in a market that wants to tell a story, and to get good prices, it’s the only way to go”.

The Australian wool marketing effort promotes wool as a generic product — in Mr Vandeleur’s view with a disappointing lack of focus on the “Australian–ness” of the product.

“When you see what New Zealand has been able to do on four to five per cent of the volume, surely that suggests we should be spending those marketing funds in a way that allows Australian companies to solidly compete with them.”

Mr Vandeleur believes the time is right to foster a movement of forward-thinking, market-connected woolgrowers like NSW Farmers Association 2011 Farmer of the Year, NewMerino client, Norm Smith.

“We’re clearly tapping into something that’s ready to go over here. We just need the woolgrowers behind us.”

Mr Vandeleur and Patagonia’s fibre development expert, Todd Copeland, will be talking on these themes at the Merino 2020 conference in Wagga Wagga, August 19-20.

For more information, visit Merino 2020 - www.merino2020.com.au - or contact (02) 6939 5000 or RICourseInfoPIC@tafensw.edu.au