NZ wool for Aston Martin

By ALASTAIR SLOANE

Secret agent James Bond will rest his British brogues on New Zealand wool if he gets to drive an Aston Martin V12 Vantage in the next 007 adventure.

The prestige British carmaker has just signed an agreement with Wools of New Zealand to to use floormats made from the best New Zealand's 70-odd million sheep have to offer.

Wools of New Zealand will supply the mats in six colours. Further orders for mats for Aston Martin V8 Volante and Vantage models are being considered.

The contract is also expected to result in one-off special-edition orders from wealthy Aston Martin owners worldwide.

Aston Martin said it chose to feature a Wools of New Zealand brand label in its premium model because of the carpet company's "absolute focus on quality."

"Wools of New Zealand products are in keeping with our product offering," said Aston Martin development executive David Byrne.

"We research suitable business partners and we feel Wools of New Zealand is a very good marriage." The agreement with the carmaker came after staff at Wools of New Zealand's design and development centre in Yorkshire were reviewing product lines.

Technologist David Moore suggested that the manufacture of car mats would be one way of utilising the facility's specialist narrow-width tufting Machinery.

The company approached Aston Martin, which agreed to a 12-month product development plan.

The manufacture of the mats proved to be a demanding job for Wools of New Zealand.

The construction of automotive carpet is quite different to that of residential carpet, said the company.

The mats had to come with suede for the driver's heel pad, fine-grain leather edging, brass eyelet holes and non-slip backing and velcro pad on the underside.

Just adding the Aston Martin winged logo required specialist colour matching and more than 20,000 stitches.

The DB7 V12 Vantage - minus the Wools of New Zealand carpets for the moment - costs $325,000 in New Zealand. The makers of the Bond movies want their man back behind the wheel of an Aston Martin, the car used in 1962 in the first 007 adventure Dr No.