PERTH is about to become the centre of Australian Merino wool garment manufacturing.
Australian Wool Network (AWN) has already moved its Merino & Co knitwear manufacturing capacity from Melbourne to Perth's northern suburbs.
But COVID-19 has temporarily delayed setting up the machines in Perth to produce Merino & Co's range of men's and women's jumpers, cardigans, coats, T-shirts, long-John underwear, shawls, ponchos, scarves, beanies and gloves marketed under the MerinoSnug brand.
AWN has partnered with Landsdale-based import-export specialist AClink International Pty Ltd - the name stands for Australia-China link - which will assume the Merino & Co name for its production of the fine wool clothing range.
Rick Maybury, AWN's chief operating officer on his first visit to AClink, Dyson Jones Wool Marketing Services and AWN's WA wool, livestock and real estate divisions since the COVID-19 pandemic hit 12 months ago, last week said Asia would be a new focus for Perth-manufactured Merino & Co garments.
"We are still committed to the Australian market that Merino & Co was previously committed to (the Williams Woolshed is a Merino & Co outlet and wool from Williams woolgrowers is used to make garments under the DNA program which supports the MerinoSnug brand)," Mr Maybury said.
"But their (AClink) expertise is getting product into the Asian market and that is such a massive market - we just don't wear enough woollen jumpers in Australia.
"The Asian markets of China, South Korea and Japan are very big consumers of wool - they have the taste for it, whereas other parts of the world have gone the fast fashion and synthetic fibres route."
Mr Maybury said domestic market volumes for locally-manufactured wool garments had been "decimated" by COVID-19 and the national border closed to international travellers.
"They (retail outlets for Merino & Co garments) were generally at tourist locations or airports," he said.
"People visiting Australia, loving the country, bought an Australian wool jumper on their way home to a northern hemisphere winter as a memento of their holiday.
"International tourists were a huge consumer of those products."
Mr Maybury said woolgrowers visiting Melbourne to watch their wool sold, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, had been able to tour the AWN production facility there to watch Australian wool being used to produce garments.
Once the Perth manufacturing facilities - two factories are involved - are in production and COVID-19 is no longer considered a threat to public health, WA woolgrowers will be able to tour the new facility here, he said.
Mr Maybury said AWN had been able to move its production equipment from Melbourne to Perth despite the extended lockdown in place in Melbourne, but ACLink was "hindered" in getting the manufacturing operation started as quickly as they had wanted.
"I think they have been hamstrung in getting skilled resources in to get the machines commissioned," he said.
Wool used to manufacture Merino & Co garments is sourced within Australia, sent overseas for processing and yarn manufacture - because capacity to do that in volume no longer exists in Australia - and returned as wool yarn for local manufacturing.
Merino & Co's MerinoSnug garments have a QR-enabled swing tag which features the farming story and pictures of some of the woolgrowers who contributed wool.
Mr Maybury said the WA wool and livestock divisions of its business, created last July, had "exceeded expectations".
"They (AWN's WA wool manager Greg Tilbrook, livestock manager Don Morgan and their agency staff) have had a tougher run than normal because we (AWN senior staff) would normally be here with them helping get the doors open," he said.
"My background was Ruralco (15 years) so I knew some of the guys from earlier days, but generally for most of the AWN wool and livestock business we've only met through Zoom and phone calls until now."
In December AWN obtained its triennial licence allowing it to operate as a real estate agent in WA, Mr Maybury said.
He said Rob McMillan has been appointed to head the WA real estate division and AWN was "quietly building our real estate capacity".
"We see property as going hand-in-hand with livestock farming in particular, but whether it's a wool or livestock specialist, or a combination, advising farmers on property purchase, sale or leasing is integral to what they do and it will be another service our team can offer," Mr Maybury said.
He said AWN's WA partner since 2008, Dyson Jones had also "jumped on opportunities" that arose from the merger of Landmark and Ruralco, with its local subsidiary Primaries of WA, to create Nutrien Ag Solutions - Dyson Jones picked up two very experienced and respected wool brokers in Carl Poingdestre and Tim Chapman.
Mr Maybury said AWN's WA wool division and Dyson Jones would continue to operate as competing brokerage businesses.
"They work well side by side, they have different ways they provide value for customers," he said.
"There's enough competitive tension to ensure the woolgrower gets the best service."
