Industry in tangle over NZ wool

By LIBBY MIDDLEBROOK

Finding New Zealand-grown woollen clothing might be a problem this winter - even granny's home-made jumpers.

Knitwear manufacturers and yarn distributors are being forced to buy wool-based yarn products from overseas because of a local market shortage following the closure this month of Coats Spencer Crafts - the country's largest yarn producer.

Yarn distributors like the Cotton-Wool Company's Diane Martin are now spending thousands overseas.

Ms Martin, who runs the Auckland-based company, said that until now it had used only New Zealand wool, spun and dyed here and the company wanted to continue to do so, but the market did not have the capacity.

Coats Spencer Crafts closed its Mosgiel factory this month with the loss of 141 jobs after selling its knitting-yarn operation to Australian Country Spinners. Coats produced about 500 tonnes of yarn each year - more than 60 per cent of New Zealand's needs. Yarn users are estimated to have spent more than $9.5 million with them each year.

Ms Martin, who spends up to $88,000 a year on 2 tonnes of woollen yarn, said the only option left for yarn users like herself was to order small batches from a number of suppliers around New Zealand or buy from overseas.

"It's marginally cheaper for us to buy from Australia and it's more convenient too, they can guarantee the volume we need."

Palmerston North-based Symingtons, a clothing manufacturer which already imports most of its yarn, is negotiating to buy thousands of dollars worth of wool-based products from an Australian producer.

"The textile industry has been downsizing in recent years and the infrastructure of supplies has forced us to go overseas, the closure of Coats has just added to that," said managing director Geoff Vaughan.

While Napier-based spinner Design Spun generates a large amount of the country's yarn requirements, general manager Brendan Jackson concedes that the company could not cater for large yarn users like Symingtons.