AUSTRALIAN Wool Innovation (AWI) will be dropping carpet manufacturers from the Woolmark brand soon to focus its attention solely on the apparel market.
AWI chief executive officer Stuart McCullough said at the WAFarmers Vitality: 2018 annual conference that wool growers owned the Woolmark brand “outright” and because of that they would be able to use it to market their wool, improving traceability in the supply chain.
Mr McCullough said the Woolmark brand was a “quality assurance mark” recognised around the world and by dropping manufacturers it would be solely an “Australian apparel Woolmark”.
“In the next little while I will knock off the carpet manufacturers and not allow them to use the Woolmark,” Mr McCullough said.
“I want to start bringing it back to be only an Australian apparel fibre mark.
“We supply 90 per cent of the world’s apparel wool from here – 90pc.
“I want that mark to represent Australian apparel wool.”
Carpets were typically about the 35 micron grade – which was well above the WA average of 19 micron, according to Australian Wool Trading Authority figures.
Mr McCullough said there wasn’t much carpet sold with the Woolmark logo on it globally in terms of total volume of wool and AWI was “at the point where branding on a carpet was at the point of a diminished return, whether that be fiscal with the licensing or reputational”.
He said Woolmark was registered in 38 jurisdictions and it was something that allowed AWI to communicate with generations Y and Z.
“They are about to get spending power in the near future,” Mr McCullough said.
“How we are planning to (communicate with them) is to connect the wool grower with the label.
“We have already got those labels hanging on garments around the world at that end of the supply chain, but gens Y and Z are increasingly interested in understanding, not only where the fibre came from, but the process it took up the supply chain – and reading that on a tag.
“They are even interested in reading about what happens to that garment after they purchase it and discard it – so a real cradle to grave reference on that particular garment.
“I am going to give every wool grower in Australia a grassier Woolmark license – in other words if you are a wool grower you can use that Woolmark.
“You can use it on wool packs, wool bales and that is the other end of the traceability.
“We have got brands at that end of the supply chain.
“Should you be interested in getting a free licence then you send us your details or you log into Wool Q and you will be given a free Woolmark license and we will send you a stencil and you can use that on your wool packs.
“I would love to see bales of wool heading up the highway or in the mills overseas with your mark on it, not just lying in among every other wool bale.”
Mr McCullough said there was a good part of the supply chain already registered as Woolmark licencees, “most of them are actually spinners, weavers and knitters right now”.
“They are the ones that register for the wool mark - so we can cover off on many of these ticks already,” he said.
“We want to make sure that it is technology first – in other words there are huge opportunities in near-field technology where we would like to think that someone could swipe their phone over the cuff of their garments and the near field communication would be able to read precisely what path that fibre has taken through the supply chain.
“Some of this technology is already available – its operating on android and IOS platforms – so you can see how that might impact on the profiling of that particular fibre.”
