Prime Movers sector report: Wool

By ADRIENNE REWI

Christchurch's Lene Alexandersen may have an MBA in marketing from Oregon University but if you'd predicted six years ago that she would be facing international success with an innovative merino wool product, she would have laughed.

As a new mother, her biggest concern then was to find a satisfactory breastfeeding pad for her own use.

Today she has a folder overflowing with international letters of recommendation and endorsements of the Lanowool breastfeeding pads she developed with the Wool Research Organisation of New Zealand (Wronz). Her business has grown 35 per cent a year since she began and this year she hopes to double output.

She has gone from keeping 50 pads in stock to landing a major Danish client - a franchise chain of 285 shops.

It's a long way from her 1996 frustration at not being able to find satisfactory breastfeeding pads on the New Zealand market. "From my experience those available were constantly sticking to the skin, leaking or chafing, and I wanted something better than the disposable varieties available," says Alexandersen.

To that end, she inquired in her homeland, Denmark, and friends sent her Danish-made woollen pads. When her midwife approved of them, she decided to test them on 15 local mothers. The results were so encouraging she began importing the Danish product, renamed Lanowool for the New Zealand market.

But breaking into the established network of professionals wasn't easy. She attended numerous midwifery and lactation consultants' conferences to get the word out and gave away at least $5000 worth of free samples.

"It took me six months of constant promotion, and without my husband's salary it would have been impossible. But with sales building in New Zealand I began eyeing up Australia. That's when it was suggested I should be using local wool rather than importing the product," says Alexandersen.

It made sense, and Alexandersen's New Zealand husband, Michael Mulcahy, who has a background in finance and agricultural studies at Lincoln University, suggested they confer with Wronz. Keen to create "the Rolls-Royce of breast pads", they made contact with Wronz research manager Jack Watt and manager of the textile processing plant John Lindsay.

"We were amazed by their standard of research, their resources, their innovative staff and their world-class understanding of the technical properties of wool. We couldn't believe they would take us on because we were so small, but they gave us a very quick response. They were enthusiastic about the product from the outset and couldn't believe someone hadn't already thought of it here."

For Alexandersen, the key to a top product lay in Wronz's ability to process the wool using only eco-friendly biodegradable detergents to make the pads softer against the skin; and to treat the fabric with a medical-grade, highly purified lanolin to create the optimal environment for breast care before birth and during nursing, without risk of allergies. From the Wronz point of view, improving the Danish breast pads "wasn't rocket science" but applying the purified lanolin (produced only in Britain) was a new area of research.

"They came back to us with a quote and we successfully applied for an Industry New Zealand Enterprise Award under the product design and development category. They then imported the lanolin and spent three months on research and development to create a prototype, which we tested on local mothers for three months," says Alexandersen.

By August 2001, Wronz began producing the specialised merino fabric and Alexandersen's contractor dealt with pressing and overlocking, leaving the packaging and marketing to her.

The fact that the breastfeeding pads were always going to be a niche market never deterred Alexandersen from thinking big. She had spotted a gap and with her personal marketing and business history, coupled with a strong belief in the excellence of her product, she began spreading the word. From the beginning she recognised the need to convince the professionals first.

"They won't recommend a product until they have had feedback from mothers, so apart from targeting health magazines, parents' centre newsletters and home birth and midwifery magazines, I also attended conferences. I could see in Australia, for instance, that it was vital to have the endorsement of the Australian Breastfeeding Association [ABA] before I could make any progress. I got that in July last year and the plan this year is to get the product into the ABA shop."

While waiting for Australian approval, she and her family went to Denmark, stopping in Singapore en route to distribute samples to lactation managers in private hospitals so the product could be tested in a tropical climate. And in Denmark, they took the risk and went ahead on Danish packaging before they had secured any major clients. "You cannot go to a big Danish chain without Danish packaging, and having the Danish barcode registered ahead of time proved to be a big help."

That aside, it was still tough getting their product accepted and Alexandersen quickly recognised the need to "be in their face". She prepared a thorough marketing plan - "that was a surprise for them" - and independently approached 50 stores in the chain and sold them on the product, getting them to sign a letter, which she presented to the chain's chief purchasing manager.

"That convinced them and they have since promised to take a minimum of 10,000 pads a year. We're confident we can grow on that. It will never be a big product but there are 58,000 births a year in Denmark and mothers want top-quality goods."

The fact that Alexandersen speaks Danish, German, French and English has been a huge international marketing advantage. She has also been astute enough to realise that every country requires a different approach. In New Zealand, for instance, she has changed to promoting the pads before births rather than afterwards and sales are predominantly through mail order. In Denmark, says Alexandersen, mothers are store-buyers.

"If you're going to get into exporting you have to be in a position to travel. I've learned so much at shop level - where shops buy from, who they respect, what packaging they respond to. I did all that groundwork and it has paid off. I've also been a salesperson and I know that a product has to be perfect before you can expect to convince purchasing managers."

Lanowool is now receiving enquiries from New York, Korea, France, Austria and Britain but Alexandersen is keen to stay focused on her ability to supply. She doesn't want to grow beyond her capabilities - "we'll do it one country at a time".

"At the same time, 2003 is our year for thinking big. We've planted seeds and we want to double production. There is nothing like this in Australia, so we're confident we can make inroads there and we now have a New Zealand woman working on our behalf in London. We'll get product into three stores there and gauge the response."

Alexandersen received the Zonta Award for Women in Business last year and with a forthcoming article in the British Journal of Midwifery, the outlook is encouraging.

Wronz's textile processing plant manager Lindsay is equally confident the product will do well. "We always encourage people who have different ideas for the end uses and added value of wool - that's our focus - and the size of an operation is irrelevant. Lanowool, for instance, obviously has a very good niche market product not previously seen in our wool and we're very happy that it's taken off the way it has.

"The more we can add value to the wool clip the better, and we have some very good manufacturers able to carry out small-scale processing. It's an area where the Kiwi attitude of giving anything a go comes to the fore," he says.

Wronz deals with many farmers who have small amounts of speciality wool for processing into yarn for niche markets - "and we're happy to do it at a cost".

It is also carrying out research and development on alpaca fleece, coloured wools and possum fur. And in the area of "smart" textiles, innovation is to the fore.

The general manager of Wronz Textiles Division, Nigel Johnson, highlights the organisation's work in electro-luminescent carpets as an example.

"We've been working on a joint venture with Wools of New Zealand to internationally market this new technology, whereby electro-luminescent textiles are integrated into the structure of plain carpets to create patterns that are activated by body weight or sound frequencies.

"We see them having application in discos, hotels, corporate offices and as safety floor lighting."

Wronz is also working on carpets that integrate phase-change materials, which enables them to buffer changes in room temperature.

"Wool already does a similar thing by absorbing and desorbing moisture property based on relative humidity but by adding phase-change materials we're further enhancing it," says Johnson.

Alexandersen has high praise for Wronz.

"We couldn't have done it without them. Research and development is their speciality and taking our idea to them was the best thing we could have done. They have world-class resources. They're a very smooth operation."

- REUTERS

Facts:

Export value: $1 billion

Wool volume: 260 million kg

Key markets: China, Britain, India

Number of farmers: 16,800

Major areas: Nationwide

Area farmed: 9 million ha