Top wool advocate bales out
The conversion of productive farmland into trees has pretty much annihilated the wool industry.
Carrfields Primary Wool's Just Shorn carpet wool brand is being rolled out in New Zealand in a "soft launch".
This follows "remarkable" success with its launch into Australia, says Howie Gardner, chairman of Carrfields Primary Wool (CP Wool) which owns the brand. Just Shorn is distributed by CCA Global Partners in North America, where it has a significant footprint.
Just Shorn is distributed in Australia via flooring retailer Carpet One and exclusively in NZ by Harrisons Carpet One.
Gardner told Rural News it has taken longer than they would have liked to "bring the brand home", but being in the NZ market gives them credibility and visibility. While early days, it is tracking well.
The local Just Shorn launch range includes six styles and up to seven colour choices. The styles all carry iconic NZ names and are 100% NZ wool procured from CP Wool clients.
"It is a very different style of carpet compared to what is in the US.... very NZ type carpets. There is one loop pile they have used more and more over the years. The majority are cut piles with high quality and good wearing."
Gardner says it is surprising how quickly Just Shorn took off in Australia. The average consumer there knows exactly what a sheep is whereas the average US consumer is much more removed from the rural sector so a big education programme is required.
"The only way you can do that is with well informed and confident frontline sales staff in the stores. That takes time to build. We have found without education there are no sales. That's a big cost to the carpet manufacturers and it costs the retailers to maintain: you can imagine that with the standard staff turnover, if you lose your wool champion you then have to train another one.
"In Australia it has been a far easier market to penetrate in that respect because you've got a market that's far more informed already."
Gardner says after a market review their North American focus is to refine their range, emphasising the premium soft flooring market coupled with ongoing consumer and retailer education.
But it is a long game. "It is in line with Fonterra and Silver Fern Farms with their branding programmes," says Gardner. "You only have to look at the success of Tatua; they have been going for 25 years. Fonterra and Silver Fern Farms are more recent. It's a slow burn. It takes a long time to build your relationships and brand understanding and to achieve those premiums.
Phoebe Scherer, a technical manager from the Bay of Plenty, has won the 2025 Young Grower of the Year national title.
The Fencing Contractors Association of New Zealand (FCANZ) celebrated the best of the best at the 2025 Fencing Industry Awards, providing the opportunity to honour both rising talent and industry stalwarts.
Award-winning boutique cheese company, Cranky Goat Ltd has gone into voluntary liquidation.
As an independent review of the National Pest Management Plan for TB finds the goal of complete eradication by 2055 is still valide, feedback is being sought on how to finish the job.
Beef + Lamb New Zealand has launched an AI-powered digital assistant to help farmers using the B+LNZ Knowledge Hub to create tailored answers and resources for their farming businesses.
A tiny organism from the arid mountains of mainland Greece is facilitating a new way of growing healthier animals on farms across New Zealand.
OPINION: For years, the ironically named Dr Mike Joy has used his position at Victoria University to wage an activist-style…
OPINION: A mate of yours truly has had an absolute gutsful of the activist group SAFE.