Kiwi carpet man targets the rich

CHRISTCHURCH - A New Zealander making headlines in the United States because the rich and famous are buying his pure-wool carpet says his company could easily absorb a $1 a kilogram lift in wool prices.

Stewart Hay, aged 44, is a Lincoln University graduate who farmed in Southland for five years before setting up his Glen Eden carpet manufacturing business in Calhoun, Georgia.

It now has an annual turnover of $25 million.

Sales have risen more than 30 per cent in each of the past three years. He employs 60 staff, and has 35 independent selling agents across the US.

Carpets from his company grace the private rooms of the Clinton family, golfer Arnold Palmer's private jet, actor Michael J. Fox's home and the Queen Mother's private suite at Buckingham Palace. They carry the Wools of NZ brand and absorb 540,000kg of wool a year.

Synthetics rule the floor-covering market, taking 95 per cent of the sales, but the affluent 5 per cent in the market number 15 million.

"We target the very, very rich," Mr Hay said. "We're talking of people with three to five homes, a private yacht and an aircraft.

"People will spend $US40 million [$82 million] on a private jet, and then spend $US5 million doing the interior on a plane 12m long."

Mr Hay acknowledged that New Zealand farmers were still hurting from the long-term slump in crossbred wool prices. He said they had to get away from the "dopey" auction system if they wanted to make money and get ahead.

"New Zealand farmers are efficient and hard-working. They deserve more for their product for what they put in, because long-term we need them as much as they need us.

"But people like me will continue to drive prices down - it's business. Farmers have to come together as much as they can and market their fibre in an intelligent manner. Set the rates and sell it. Take control of the fibre they produce.

"We could easily absorb a $1 a kg price rise in wool, and that would make a huge difference to New Zealand farmers."

Mr Hay and his wife, Lexis, moved to the US in 1987 with a company transfer. In 1991, they decided to take a punt and bought the company. "We felt confident that we understood the market and the company better than the directors at home." - NZPA