AWI boss John Roberts ready for wool challenges

It is purely coincidence, Mr Roberts selflessly claims, that AWI appears to be refocusing more closely on some onfarm issues woolgrowers face day-to-day and actively addressing some of their criticisms from the past, since his backside landed in the hot seat.

Two seasons into a wool harvesting labour crisis which, credit where credit is due, saw AWI significantly increase shearer and wool handler training commitments from the get-go and partner with the Western Australian Government to fund additional training, there was suddenly more to come.

In June, a WA WoolTAG (Technical Advisory Group) committee was formed with AWI's encouragement and participation, joining a New South Wales WoolTAG committee formed last year and the long-existing South Australian WoolTAG committee which had operated on its own for almost a decade.

The job of these local volunteer committees is to consider local solutions to local wool harvesting problems - the problems are quite different on opposite sides of the country and AWI recognised that, Mr Roberts pointed out.

WA is less reliant on a seasonal influx of non-resident New Zealand shearers and wool handlers than the Eastern States, but has an isolation problem making full-time shearing and wool handling less attractive as permanent career choices.

Over east, shed staff prepared to travel can start a season in Queensland and finish in Tasmania, spending more of the year fully employed than is often possible for some lesser-experienced WA shearers.

"We (AWI) have to come in and listen to how people want to address wool harvesting," said Mr Roberts on the formation of a local WoolTAG committee.

"There's a lot of different opinions there, one of which is ours, but we have to have input from everybody."

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Collaboration with university researchers on a seemingly far-off robotic shearing solution to labour issues was recently overtaken by a more immediate AWI collaboration with engineers, shearing contractors and farmers that turned out a 'right-now' portable hydraulic shearing module to help overcome some current and longer-term industry issues.

Modules can be strung together and set up in a machinery shed when the farm equipment is moved out - a dedicated shearing shed is not a prerequisite, working around some woolgrowers' reluctance to spend money upgrading a facility they see as having only limited use.

Ultimately, some shearing contractors may end up providing their own modules and moving them farm to farm, along with shearing teams, wool handlers and wool classers, in a bid to keep their workforce for longer by providing a safer, more efficient and more pleasant working environment than many woolgrowers currently do.

The big advance with the module is a rear race - rather than a catching pen - that hydraulically presents the next sheep to the shearer within two paces of where it will be shorn.

It eliminates almost all 'catch and drag' of the sheep responsible for many shearers' bad backs and bringing some careers to a premature end.

Shearers who have used the module said it enabled them to shear more sheep per run without working harder.

"It (the module) allows the shearer to do more for longer," Mr Roberts said.

The hydraulic shearing module is already available and a manual version is due next year.

AWI's recent three-year strategic plan also demonstrated a new approach.

It reinforced scientific research to find a flystrike vaccine is an important priority and, devoting a section of the plan to consultation, highlighted consulting with woolgrowers is also now prominent in AWI's thinking.

Levy arguments at the last two WoolPolls saw WA woolgrowers in particular claim AWI was not listening and widened the rift between WoolProducers Australia - the peak national body representing woolgrowers - and AWI, the national body charged with research, development and marketing activities for the industry.

"We had a review of performance last year which spoke a lot about consultation, as did the previous one three years earlier," Mr Roberts said.

"We know we can always get better at consultation and listening.

"I think that is what we have tried to do with the structures in place - the Wool Industry Consultative Panel and the wool consultative group, we've really tried to take the industry's counsel on a lot of things.

"That is also evident in our strategic plan I think.

"We've got to not just say we're listening, we have to show we are listening."

Perhaps most symbolic yet of change within AWI has been a rearrangement of story priority in its quarterly Beyond the Bale publication for the June issue.

The front cover featured a picture of AWI's wool harvesting training and development manager Craig French with young people attending a novice wool handler course, rather than the winners of the International Woolmark Prize for fashion featured inside.

Stories on wool handler training, foot and mouth and other disease risks and technical articles on flystrike management and other issues featured in the front half of the reprioritised magazine.

Articles on fashion, new product development and marketing were consigned to the back half - a reverse of the layout of many previous Beyond the Bale editions.

Mr Roberts was chuffed when WA Merino magazine pointed out the subtle change has been noticed.

"We (AWI) think the marketing is vitally important, but it doesn't always have as much meaning for a woolgrower," he said.

"We want to make sure we have really tangible activities that mean a bit more to woolgrowers."

But Mr Roberts is adamant the changes becoming noticeable in AWI's philosophy are not just down to him.

"I wouldn't attribute that (changes in philosophy) to just the change of CEO," he said.

"I think it is something we have been working on for quite some time.

"We're very proud of it, in fact."

Within the current wool industry Mr Roberts is something of a rare ram - his career has involved buying and selling both greasy and processed wool, but what sets him apart is his personal, hands-on experience at local, volume, early-stage wool processing, an aspect of the industry that has disappeared offshore, with three local processors basically retaining only niche capacity.

Born and bred in Sydney, Mr Roberts has relatives who are woolgrowers near Binalong and Yass in the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales.

School holidays were spent helping on the farm.

"I've done a bit of roustabouting and loved it," Mr Roberts said.

"I've held a handpiece, but I haven't done much shearing myself."

He started his 35-year career in the wool industry as a shipping and administration clerk for Australian exporter Booth Hill & New Pty Ltd in Sydney in 1988.

"We had trading managers who booked the business and wool buyers who bought the (greasy) wool and I helped co-ordinate the completion of the orders, put the parcels together, put them in a box (shipping container) and put them on a boat," he explained.

"It was a good experience and a few years later they allowed me to buy wool and ultimately to trade wool."

He bought greasy wool mainly at the Yennora, Sydney and Melbourne selling centres.

"Back in those days we had selling centres all over Australia - Brisbane, Tassie, Freo, Portland, Albany and Adelaide," he recalled.

Mr Roberts was senior trader for Agrisk Pty Ltd developing risk management tools for wool growers, before moving to Dubbo, as topmaking and trading manager at Fletcher International.

He returned to the Booth group - by then owned by German topmaker BWK - as trading manager for greasy wool and wool tops, based in Melbourne.

Mr Roberts' markets included Italy, India, the United Kingdom, United States of America, Eastern Europe and of course, China.

He also supervised blending, processing and selling of wool tops produced by Austops in Parkes, NSW and Geelong Wool Combing in Victoria.

"I was fortunate enough to be exposed not just to trading greasy wool, but putting it over the combs and the processing of wool," Mr Roberts said.

"At the time (late 1990s) we had Austops in Parkes, Geelong Wool Combing, BWK in Bremen (Germany), we had a small mill in Turkey - it was a great time, I learned a lot.

"When Elders bought BWK (in 2000), I was part of another buyout and I moved to Adelaide with Elders BWK, a joint venture which ultimately ended up being owned by Elders."

With Elders BWK, then Australia's largest wool exporter, he was appointed marketing and trading manager China in 2003 and lived in Shanghai for three years.

There he launched the first Australian wool auctions held in China, developed new direct-selling mill contacts and led woolgrower tours of China.

He also negotiated the sale of some of the last volume wool processing equipment left in Australia to Chinese woollen mills, something he is philosophical about.

"When I was there I was very much involved with a joint venture with Geelong Wool Combing and Nanshan (Group) and we sold Austops' machinery and a lot of the Geelong equipment to various mills in China," Mr Roberts said.

"It was just one of those things.

"It was costing us (Elders BWK) $1.40 a kilogram to convert greasy (wool) to top (in Australia) and the Chinese were doing it for 45c - it was just mathematics.

"It broke my heart, I loved having the processing here in Australia."

Mr Roberts returned to Australia in 2006 as Elders Wool International general manager, overseeing its global greasy wool trading and commission combing operations for five years.

When Canadian agri-giant Agrium - now Nutrien Ag Solutions - bought the Landmark agri-services business as part of its purchase of the failing wheat marketer AWB Pty Ltd in 2011, it reactivated the historic Dalgety Wool brand and Mr Roberts jumped ship to head Dalgety Wool Exports for three years.

His next appointment was as executive officer for an independent wool selling system review that started in October, 2014 and was commissioned by AWI - his first connection with the organisation he now heads.

The review panel consisted of James Lillie from Fox & Lillie Pty Ltd, former Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairman Graeme Samuel, former Productivity Commission head of office Bernie Wonder and then investment consultant Will Wilson who went on to lead the WoolQ project for AWI and become chairman of WoolQ Pty Ltd.

"The review took nearly two years and came up with a whole ream of issues that needed to be addressed, particularly in relation to transparency and efficiency," Mr Roberts said.

"Its main recommendation was a need for a wool exchange portal (WEP) for online trading, which ultimately became WoolQ."

That foot in the door with the review committee led to his joining AWI in 2018 as general manager - eastern hemisphere, where his role took in the areas of product innovation, education and marketing throughout Asia.

One of his first duties in that role was to formally declare open the Woolmark Resource Centre in Hong Kong.

"My first trip with the company was for the opening of that facility, (but) we're having a close look at it now," he said, indicating another AWI change is in the wind - a wholly-owned subsidiary of AWI, The Woolmark Company is considered by Mr Roberts to be the brand by which AWI is known overseas.

"The reason we set it up there was all the great global brands and retailers had their sourcing hubs in Hong Kong and we got so much brand traffic through there - it was brilliant," he said.

"But a lot of those companies have relocated after what has happened in Hong Kong (with the Chinese Government taking control of the city from locally elected officials).

"It is sad really, it was exactly the right thing to do at the time and the first few years it ran, it exceeded our expectations in terms of traffic - but that's not happening now.

"So we are seriously reviewing what we are doing with that and the lease.

"I think we want to look at having similar, but smaller versions, in a number of jurisdictions."

In 2019 he became AWI's chief operating officer and from there it was a rapid progression to the hot seat.

However, according to Mr Roberts, the past four years with AWI has added a previously missing skill set to his well-rounded career, to place him in a better position to help the board guide the organisation forward.

A new chairman and a new woman member in the past 16 months has seen the board subject to change too, although it retains the previous five men, two women gender mix.

"I certainly wouldn't claim to be an expert on the fashion and retail side (of the industry), but I've been exposed to that in the past four years, which I've really enjoyed," he said.

"It's kind of like the finishing piece - knowing your customer and what they want.

"It's probably the big gap in a lot of people's experience and it's so valuable to have that.

"I feel very fortunate having worked in the wool industry for near on 35 years.

"I see this (AWI CEO role) as my opportunity to give something back."

Mr Roberts said he was optimistic about the future of wool but sees change as inevitable and likely ongoing.

"If you look at the fundamentals out there - what is happening with consumer priorities overseas, if you consider Gen Z (people born between 1996 and 2010) is going to be our biggest customer in the next 10 years," he said.

"If you look at their priorities in terms of natural, biodegradable, sustainable attributes, I think it's really exciting and I want to tap into that and just leverage every opportunity that we possibly can, because I think we have a really good story to tell with wool.

"We know the traditional suiting and worsted areas have been the lifeblood of the industry for 150 years - and it still is, to be honest with you - so we are never going to turn our back on that.

"But we think the growth area - the area where we are going to see more growth of wool product - is in that health and wellness area, those modern applications.

"Whether you wear a full suit or jacket and jeans to work, you are certainly going to buy some formal or semi-formal attire and so we are certainly going to support both in the knitted sector and the sports sector.

"A lot of it is just understanding that you have a customer.

"The wool supply chain is fairly long and I think it is often quite easy for a woolgrower to forget that they have a customer from overseas.

"I think one of our key jobs is to remind the woolgrower of that and to give them as much information as we possibly can about what their (customers') priorities are.

"I like to think my experience will allow me to serve woolgrowers well.

"I'm very optimistic about things - I know we've got some big challenges ahead of us, but with the right degree of diplomacy and the right degree of unity within the industry, I think we can work together to take on these challenges.

"I think one thing the industry needs right now is unity and the one thing I do want to bring to this role is a degree of diplomacy that allows us to work together as an industry to take on these challenges and leverage opportunities.

"We (wool industry) are pretty small - 1 per cent of global textiles - but we've never had a better opportunity than right now, we just need to leverage that opportunity."

Mr Roberts is adamant there is one thing about AWI that will not change while he is in the hot seat.

"We're never going to tell farmers what to do onfarm and we will always defend their right to look after their animals in what they think is the most humane way possible," he said.

"If that involves mulesing, so be it.

"What we will do is furnish growers with information from a consumer perspective.

"The other thing we will do is equip them with tools if they want to move that way (to cease mulesing).

"We're about tangible outcomes."